Rise of the Western Empire
by Sadono
Summary: After the Sasuke retrieval mission Tsunade suddenly stops her support for Naruto on the village council, bringing him into the clutches of Danzo. But with a little help from his friends Naruto manages to escape the village. His flight leads young Naruto into the west where he soon trades his dream to become Hokage for a new one. M for violence.
1. Chapter 1: Getaway

**Getaway**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto slowly opened his eyes and stared at a white ceiling. He looked around and found white walls and several empty beds. 'Dammit I'm in the hospital again'.

He tried to remember how he got here and images from the fight at the valley of the end and of Sasuke floated into his head.

Then he heard footsteps on the corridor outside his room and excited chattering from someone he knew. He couldn't understand anything but a minute later Sakura entered his room, a cute smile on her face. Naruto smiled back.

"Hey Sakura"

"Hey Naruto" She walked towards him.

"Is Sasuke alright? Is he here, too?"

"Yeah he is in another room and it looks like he will be ok. If Kakashi sensei had found you two an hour later, none of you might have made it."

"And the others? What about Choji, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru and Lee?"

"They will live. Even though Choji and Neji were a really close call."  
He realized that something in the sound of her voice and how she smiled at him was … wrong.

"Well I'm glad everything worked out. I-I hope when Sasuke is over whatever made him run away we can be a team again. "

Sakura's creepy smile got wider. "No"

"Huh?"

"Naruto baka I know that you are a monster and that you used its powers to beat Sasuke within an inch of his life. We will never be a team again because you won't be there."

"B-But Sakura-chan I didn't have any other choice. Sasuke would have killed me or gotten away if I hadn't used its powers. And I swear that if I ever completely lose control of the fox I would rather kill myself than see my friends get hurt."

"Then you should have probably killed yourself. But that doesn't matter. Lady Tsunade and the village council have decided that you are too big of a liability to keep this way. You will be locked away like the beast you are."

"Tsunade baa-chan would never allow that!"

"Hehe but she already has."

Naruto couldn't believe what she was saying. Tsunade had turned against him? That couldn't be right.  
"By the way I'm glad I met them before they got to you and I was allowed to do this."

"What are you talking about?"

She flicked her finger. "Anbu! Take him away!"

Three Anbu entered the room, fettered his hands and feet and dragged him away. Naruto was too surprised and too weakened from his wounds to do anything.

* * *

A few hours later Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga and Tenten were summoned to the I&T department. They were the only ones of the Konoha 12 who were neither hospitalized nor already informed of the complete situation. Yuuhi Kurenai was currently explaining things to the rookies.

"S-so h-he has the K-kyuubi sealed inside of him?" Inside Hinata was screaming but she tried to remain as calm as possible on the outside.

"Yes, the council believes the beast has been manipulating him for quite a while now. They think that under Danzo he can at least still be used as a force to defend the leaf."

Tenten asked: "Isn't it strange that Lady Tsunade so far treated him like a little brother and now she pretty much throws him away? I mean he really only completed his mission successfully. No innocent was hurt or killed."

"I don't know about that, I guess Lady Tsunade was convinced by the councils arguments."

The usually silent Shino spoke up for once "Can we talk to Naruto-san? He may be a monster but he still was a comrade for quite some time."

Kurenai shrugged and motioned the ninjas to follow. The Jonin they met directioned them to a dark looking corridor with several cell doors. Kurenai knew that there was no way to contact whoever was in the cell in question so they had to wait. Luckily for them it took only 10 minutes before the cell door opened and Kakashi stepped out. He had a grim look on his face, on his metal reinforced gloves was some blood. Through the cell door Naruto could be seen. He was chained to a chair, his chest was bare and sweaty. He had his head lowered but the people outside could still see he was crying silently and his face was bruised and bloody.

"Hello Kurenai. What are they doing here?" Kakashi asked pointing to the group of rookies.

"Hi Kakashi. They want to talk to Naruto."

"I don't think that is a good idea. They should realise that Naruto is not who he pretended to be. He is the beast that killed countless of our leaf shinobi and my sensei."

"K-kakashi-san?" Kakashi was surprised to hear the timid Hinata Hyuuga speak up. "P-please let me t-talk to N-Naruto. L-like you I h-have a score to settle with him."

Kakashi looked surprised to the determined looking Hyuuga girl.

"H-his stupid act m-made me fall f-for who he p-pretended to be. I w-want to g-give him a piece of my m-mind. P-please Kakashi-san I n-need to do this to get over him f-for good."

Kakashi nodded, her argument made sense. "Alright Kurenai or I will stay with you."

"N-No! I h-have to d-do this alone!"

Kakashi contemplated this for a minute then he nodded and motioned for her to enter the cell.

Trembling Hinata closed the heavy steel door. Then she poured some chakra into the seals that covered all the walls and the door itself and they began to glow in a soft blue light. She briefly activated her Byakugan. The seals were clearly working, even with her special eyes she couldn't look outside and she was sure that as long the seals were active no sound would be able to go in or out of the cell either. This filled her with a strange calm. She had all the time in the world to do what needed to be done and no one would be able to intervene. She couldn't really believe her luck to be with Naruto in a cell designed to get alone-time with prisoners but she had no time to think about that.  
She turned to Naruto, tears were still running down his cheeks. She walked towards him, sat down in his lap and embraced him in a hug. Normally Hinata would have never been able to do anything like this but now in the safety of the cell she found the courage she needed to help him.

"H-Hinata?" Naruto was surprised. The girl had just talked about her having a score to settle with him and now she was hugging him, in a compromising position no less.

"Shhh Naruto-kun, it's ok. I'm sorry about the things I said but I really needed to talk to you."

Naruto registered somewhere in his mind that she wasn't stuttering but that was rather unimportant right now. Naruto leaned into the girl's shoulder and cried.

A few minutes later Naruto had recovered enough that he was able to talk again.

"Sakura and Kakashi-sensei both think that I'm a monster … the fox. "

"Naruto-kun I have been watching you for a long time, I know that you are not a monster."

"But everyone else seems to think so."

"No Naruto-kun, not everyone. I heard Shikamaru got arrested after he attacked the first group of Anbu, who were coming to get you. Even though he was hospitalized and still completely out of chakra."

Naruto's eyes got wide and then he snickered "That seems so unlike our great master strategist."

Hinata smiled at this, she had at least lightened his mood a bit. "Yeah, it really does."

Then Naruto's face fell a bit again "Um Hinata was what you said out there true? Did you really have a crush on me?"

"No Naruto I still have crush on you."

Naruto just stared for a moment. "I'm sorry you are so nice to me and I never really noticed you."

"Naruto as I said I watched you for quite some time and I know that you can be a bit … thick headed sometimes." Naruto wanted to protest at first but then decided against it and let her continue " I knew if I wanted you to notice me I would probably have to make the first move. But I was always too shy to do that. So it's not really your fault"

Naruto nodded and smiled. "Thank you Hinata."

"Naruto I need you to promise me something."

"Ok Hinata what is it?"

"Naruto I need you to trust me please, say you will promise me what I want from you."

Naruto was bit taken aback by that but he decided to trust her. "Alright Hinata I will promise you whatever you want."

"You have to promise me that you will run away from the village and not be captured again."

"WHAT? No way Hinata! I can't just leave the village. My only remaining friends are here, here is my home and it is my dream to be Hokage one day."

"Naruto I'm not saying that you can never return but as things are right now you need to get away. The village council is against you and they will turn you over to Danzo if they have their way."

"Yeah Kakashi mentioned him, who is he?"

"He is one of the village elders. My father said he was involved in programs about conditioning soldiers, switching off their emotions and making them completely obedient … and he said he was the right man to make you into a reliable tool."

Naruto shuddered at hearing the phase "What about Tsunade-baa-chan? Is she really against me?"

"As far as I have heard yes, which seems kind of strange. But Naruto-kun even if she is somehow influenced or blackmailed, please let me or Shikamaru, your friends, handle that. You need to get away for now!"

"All right, all right. I promise you I will flee from the village."

"Thank you." Hinata smiled happily. "Now I will get those chains off you so you can get out of here."

She began standing up from his lap but then decided otherwise and sat back down.  
"Naruto I'm sorry but there is s-something I must do. I-I know it is selfish but it is something I always wanted and I might never get another chance again. A-and if you d-don't like it please just see it as your p-payment for me for helping you escape."

Naruto noticed that her stutter was back and nodded dumbly 'What is going on? What is she talking about?'

Then Hinata leaned leaned closer to him, grabbed the back of his head and kissed him on the lips. Naruto was surprised first but then kissed back. After a few moments Hinata leaned back again, ending the kiss. She was happy to find that Naruto was bit surprised about what had happened, but not angry.

Hinata stood up from naruto and pulled a bunch of papers from a pocket.

"I made a small detour to a weapon shop to get these after my father roughly informed me of the situation and told me that I was to meet Kurenai sensei here at the I&T department for a thorough explanation. They are specialized exploding tags for opening doors or breaking stuff like chains."

She put one of the tags on the metal ring around one of Narutos wrists and stepped back. Hinata was silently chanting in her head 'Please don't blow his hand off. Please don't blow his hand off.'  
Then she made a handseal while saying "Katsu!" and the tag went off.

The small explosion rang loudly in the tiny cell and Naruto shortly screamed in pain, but his wrist was only bleeding lightly and his hand was free. Then they repeated the process for his other hand and his feet and finally Naruto was able to stand up from the chair unbound.

He stretched his limbs a bit and then captured Hinata in a hug. "Thank you Hinata. It is thanks to you that I still believe that I have friends here." Hinata was blushing heavily now, somehow she had gotten a lot more nervous having close contact with him now that he was free

"N-Naruto-kun you were the one who helped me change for the better. I will always be there for you." There was a small pause while Naruto continued to hold Hinata tight. But after a while he let her go.

"Say Hinata what will you do when I run away from the village?"

Hinata looked sad when he mentioned that and answered:  
"I would like to come with you but if I do that I will most likely never be able to return again. And like you I p-promised myself to change my clan and get rid of the caged bird seal. If no one except people I trust like Kurenai sensei, Shino and Tenten who were with me notice me helping you, I would like to stay here and fulfill that promise. But once that is done and you still can not return I promise I will find you." She looked up into his eyes expectantly "At least if you don't mind."

Naruto was smiling now "No I really wouldn't mind that, I want to see you again."

"Naruto-kun I think we wasted enough time already we have to get you out of here."

"Do you have any kind of plan?"

"I will go out first and try to disable Kurenai sensei and any other jonin who might be there. Then you will come out and help me against Shino and Tenten. From there you will be on your own. But I hope you can make it out of the building before anyone else notices you're missing. Are you ready Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grabbed the back of her head and pulled her into kiss. When he pulled back he smiled at her and said "Now I'm ready."

Hinata just blushed furiously and nodded.

* * *

A few minutes later Hinata opened the door only a gap wide so that no one could look inside and exited the cell. She looked to the ground to hide her face with the help of her hair, but with her byakugan she could see that only Kurenai, Shino and Tenten had remained in front of the cell. Thanking her lucky stars the girl continued her plan.

Kurenai saw Hinata, she had her head lowered and was sobbing audibly. Kurenai went over to Hinata, got on one knee because of the height difference and hugged her. She noticed how the girl put her hands around her neck. And then suddenly her world went black.  
But she still heard Hinatas call "Now Naruto!"

Then the cell door burst open and Naruto stormed out directly at Shino. He pulled his right fist back to possibly take Shino out in one strike only to notice that Shino made no moves to defend himself and was calmly expecting the strike. Naruto stopped.

"Um you are not defending yourself?"

"That is correct."

"Why?"

"While I don't wish to oppose the village because of my duties as clan heir, I still see you as a comrade and friend. Not mentioning my teammate Hinata. So logically being taken down by you while you successfully escape would be the best possible outcome of the situation."

"So you know what we are doing?"

"After what Hinata-san said earlier that was the most logical thing to occur. Though I am interested in how she managed to get you free."

Naruto winced at that but didn't answer his question. He looked towards Tenten.

"Will you try to stop me?"

"Nah I don't think I will. You have changed Neji for the better and for that I really owe you."

Naruto just grinned and put one hand on the back of his head. Now there were two more people he could trust.

"Thanks guys."

Hinata stepped forward "Thank you Shino and Tenten. Can you please say Naruto broke free with chakra from the fox if you are questioned? I would like to be able to stay in the village."

Shino nodded "I am glad I will not lose a teammate today." Tenten agreed, too.

Then Shino spoke up again "Naruto-san may I ask you to punch me as you originally intended, I would prefer it if this looked convincing." After one more round of convincing Naruto, he punched both of them once in a way so that they hit the wall, knocking them out cold.

But before Naruto did the same to Hinata the cell next door opened a bit then they heard the voice of Ino Yamanaka. She already stood half in the door ready to leave the cell but had turned around again to face inside. She hadn't noticed what had happened outside  
"I will think about what you said Shika. Just stop attacking anbu from now on please."  
And then Ino fell into an unconscious heap because she hadn't noticed Hinata stepping behind her, grabbing her neck.

Naruto stepped past Hinata and Ino's unconscious form into the cell.

"You okay Shikamaru?"

"Naruto! Yeah I am ok, just leave me here they will let me go after a while. But you have to get out of here now!"

"Sure thing, bye Shikamaru and thanks for attacking those anbu for me."

"Wait!"

"Huh?"

"Naruto what is your plan?"

"Uhm get out of the building and run like hell."

"Naruto that will never work, the leaf has specialized tracking teams, you will never escape them. Especially outside the village once they find your scent."

"What should I do?"

"Grab as many clothes as you easily can from the people here, then get out of the building and get into a back alley. Create a bunch shadow clones and give them most of the peoples clothes and your own clothes. Keep the clothes of one of the people to yourself. Then you and your shadow clones all henge into different people and spread out in different directions."

"To confuse anyone following me by enhanced smelling right?"

"Right. But the problem remains that once you are out of the village your pursuers will have it easy and even if they have to follow each trail separately, your chances are grim."

"So?"

"It would be best if you could hide inside Konoha for a while. A place protected by seals, so that nothing like the hokages seeing orb or the byakugan can find you."

"The only problem being that there is no such place. At least none that is empty since hiding in a clans home is a bit suicidal."

"That would be correct if the clan I am thinking about still had any other members."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well it's just a theory of mine, but if you really belong to that clan then you could easily get access to the compound by wiping a bit of blood on the seal on the compound gate."

"You think I belong to a clan?"

"As I said it is just a theory but right now I think this is your best bet."

"What clan are you talking about? I know there is no Uzumaki compound in the village."

"That is correct. But I am talking about the Namikaze." Behind himself Naruto could hear a gasp from Hinata.

"Who are they?"

"You really should remember that Minato Namikaze was the fourth Hokage."

"Oh."

"Remember if you get access to the compound create a new shadow clone and give him all of your remaining clothes at best. Your trail must not end there or they might find you. The compound is north of the western plaza, the first big mansion on the left. Now get out of here!"

"Right!"

Naruto and hinata collected all easily accessible clothes like jackets and socks and Naruto put them in a bag he had found on Kurenai. Then he said goodbye to Hinata who had to convince him to knock her out like the others. He henged into Kurenai and began his search for the exit. Luckily none of the other jonins paid him any real attention. After he had left the building. Shikamarus plan went incredibly smooth.

* * *

Half an hour later Naruto stood inside the Namikaze compound in front of the mansion door. He was only wearing his underwear at this point but after what happened that day Naruto couldn't care less. Only five minutes after he and his clones had spread out he had noticed the frantically searching anbu groups. But luckily Naruto remained level headed and slowly walked towards his destination, avoiding all trouble. It really helped that from time to time the anbu noticed one of his clones and got into a wild chase with it. And the compound gate had opened right after he had spilled a tiny bit of blood on it. But now after being in safety the thing that worried him most was that he didn't have the key to the mansion. Even though he thought it useless he went to the door and pushed. And it immediately opened. Naruto nearly smacked his head. Of course, if anyone made it past the seals any lock would be useless, so why bother with a key at all?

He dragged himself into the mansion and began exploring. He made it only as far as one room. He had found the living room, laid down on the couch there and immediately fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2: A small transaction

**A small transaction**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

'I am related to the fourth hokage!' This was the thought which woke Naruto up the next morning. He immediately began searching the compound with the help of a bunch of shadow clones.  
He didn't have to search long. In a well furnished office lay a paper which contained the family tree of the Namikaze. On the bottom of it were two names 'Minato Namikaze' and 'Kushina Uzumaki Namikaze'. On the paper lay a smaller note with two names written in a fine handwriting 'Naruto / Naruko'. On the desk next to the paper with the family tree stood a picture with two people in it: a blond male he recognized from the hokage mountain and red headed woman. Naruto started crying a little: he had found out who his parents were.

The rest of the day was spent with searching the rest of the house. On the attic he found a box with clothes that fit him. Unfortunately the clothes were for the most part completely free of orange and had a lot of blue on them but Naruto didn't really have much to choose from. There was a big library with jutsu, scrolls and ninja books but Naruto ignored this for now. He found a little well in the completely overgrown gardens so water was not going to be a problem but there was no electricity and no food. Luckily someone else solved the second problem for him.

On the next morning Naruto found a blinking seal in the office which looked strangely similar to a letter. So Naruto went down in front of the mansion door and to the mailbox. Its entrance slot was outside of the seal, but it could be easily accessed from inside. Naruto found a single scroll, which he soon identified as a storage scroll. After a quick search of the well organized library he found the description how to open such scrolls and a few tries later a big bag came into existence containing a lot of noodles, meat, spices and three big bottles of drinking water, even though he didn't need them. Naruto once again silently thanked those who still supported him. From there on every few days there would a new scroll for him with new supplies.

Later that day when thinking about how people could be able to sniff him out, he remembered something.

"Kuchijose no jutsu!" In a puff of smoke an orange toad appeared.

"Hey Gamakichi."

"Hi Naruto. How's it going?"

"Um not that well. Say Gamakichi: Jiraiya is the toad sage and I am contracted to the toads. Now if he wanted to contact, find or even catch me what could he do?"

"Well he would most likely be able to do all of those things, I think that Ma or Pa would agree to reverse summon you if he wished it."

Naruto was a bit shocked, but he had feared that much.  
"Then I want out. I can't risk him catching me or finding out my location even though I don't really know if he's with me or against me."

"Um wait a second I will ask Ma and Pa about that."  
He disappeared in a cloud of smoke and reappeared a few minutes later.  
"They said they will allow you to put the contract on hold. You won't be allowed to summon us during that time. Jiraiya will be allowed to send you messages but not to reverse summon you or ask us about your location. If you summon one of us, then the contract will be in full effect again. Is that ok with you?"

"Yeah sounds good. Gamakichi? I will miss you buddy."

"I will miss you too, Naruto. I hope you will be able to resolve whatever there is between you and the old geezer soon."

"I hope so, too" And then Gamakichi vanished again.

Over the following week he made a bunch of discoveries. First of all was that he finally realized the special ability of his clone jutsu to transfer the clones memories to him. But even though he got the memories of the last clone running from the anbu two days after his arrival in the mansion he only recognized the importance of this discovery after finding it mentioned on scrolls about jutsu training exercises.  
Then he found out that his mother was the former jinchuriky of the nine tailed fox from some correspondence of her with her family in the whirlpool. If he had any ill will towards his father for making him a jinchuriky at all, it vanished with this bit of information, because it was a family thing apparently.

On the third day he finally found out what the strange contraption was which he had found in the cellar. It was an experimental device which was able to store chakra and convert it into electricity to provide it to the rest of the house. Naruto had definitely no problem with giving a bit of chakra to the thing and from there on he had lighting as well as running and even warm water.

Two days later he found the plans for the seals around the compound. Before he had tried to avoid the gardens out of fear of being seen from one of higher places in konoha by looking over the compound wall. But the seal system contained a genjutsu which would always show outsiders a fixated, even outdated view of the mansion. The place was soundproof too. That meant he would be able to train outside of the mansion without any troubles. So he did. With several hundred shadow clones mostly.

On the sixth day Naruto decided to pay the fox a visit. He got into a meditative stance in the middle of his living room and concentrated on entering his mindscape. Several minutes later he stood in the familiar dark sewer in front of the gates holding the nine tailed fox.

"Hey stupid fox."

**"What do you want brat?"**

"Well furball I found out that the fourth hokage was my father and that my mother was your last Jinchuriky. But that opens up a bunch of new questions. First of all: How the fuck did you get free from my mother?"

**"Tch I won't tell you."**

"Argh so is it correct that first my mother died after or because of childbirth, through that you got free somehow and then my father died while trying to seal you?"

**"No they both died together after I impaled them on one of my claws."**

"You are just trying to piss me of now, aren't you?"

**"Maybe."**

"Listen I really want to know what happened. So if there's anything you want apart from getting free or destroying Konoha, maybe we can compromise."

**"I will think about it."**

On the last day of the week Naruto made one final discovery: There were many jutsu in the library but there was one jutsu which really stood out. It provided means to both attack and defense as it enabled somebody to easily escape dangerous situations. Naruto knew that if he wanted to leave Konoha like he promised, this would be the jutsu to learn. His fathers signature move.

* * *

Three months after Naruto first entered the compound

Naruto was sick of staying in the confined space of the mansion and decided to bring his plans to leave Konoha into action. When he stepped outside of his clan compound he was henged into a regular chunin. On his back was a giant storage scroll. He was happy when he had found the three big storage scrolls one day. While normal storage scrolls could only contain one item, these big scrolls were littered with hundred little storage seals which together together could hold a lot of stuff. Like everything that wasn't absolutely unmovable in the Namikaze compound. Naruto had his clones even disassemble and seal the cool chakra power plant in the basement. The jutsu library was completely taken just as well as the contents of the amory and any documents he could find.

Naruto created four shadow clones and sent them on their way with specific orders. He himself made his way to his personal target. The Konoha ninja bank. When he entered he noticed the place was littered with intricate seals and he had to wonder if there were even still any seal masters in the village who could restore these masterworks should the need arise.  
He stepped towards the only banker he could see, a slim man, 50 years old maybe, with grey hair. A short look around verified that no one else was present. Naruto released the henge and grinned towards the banker.

"Hello my name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. I would like to extract all my clans belongings."  
The eyes of the man became wide as dinner plates but then he signalled Naruto to follow him into his office.  
"Sir could you tell me if anything has changed since my departure? Am I still being hunted?"

"I have to inform you that you have been marked an a class missing nin. Even the information about the nine tails was included. Since you are here you are probably already aware of that but I want to assure you again that I will stick to the rules of my position as they were given by the first hokage. We from the Konoha ninja bank don't answer to the hokage or the council but only to the individual clans."

Naruto nodded.

"All right first I would like to verify your identity." Naruto gave the banker his family tree and the documents for the Namikaze and the Uzumaki vault in the ninja bank. The banker briefly looked over the documents then he pulled out two paper seals.  
"These are clan verification seals. You just have to smear a drop of blood on them. If the paper turns green you belong to the clan and if it turns red you don't belong to it. Simple as that."

Naruto smeared blood on both sheets of paper and both the Uzumaki and the Namikaze one turned green immediately. The banker was obviously a bit taken aback by the fact that Naruto could prove belonging to the Namikaze clan but was soon back to his professional demeanor.

"Good I won't need further verification since it is known that you are Konohas last Uzumaki and obviously Namikaze, too, all goods stored here belong immediately to you. But if you withdraw everything your clans automatically lose their status as clans of Konoha."

"Yes, I know that."

"Then I need you to return the deed of ownership to the Namikaze compound." Naruto nodded and pulled out the desired document. The man then began to write onto a special form. "Now I need you to sign here and we can begin the transaction." Then the man led Naruto into the basement, past heavy metal doors with seals so powerful Naruto felt as if he could hear the chakra humming.

In the vault there were a bunch of gates like the doors before. They had security seals on them too and clan crests. The banker stepped to one of the smaller gates.

"This is the Namikaze vault. Would you please pour a bit of blood on the seal to the left?" Naruto did as he was told and noticed that the man did the same on his side. Then he turned away from Naruto to hide a bunch of handseals and then a grumbling noice was heard that signalled that the great lock had sprung open. Together they opened the gates to the vault.  
Inside there was a small pile of gold bars and a slightly bigger pile of some sort of metal, in addition to several boxes.

"The Namikaze vault containing 5 tons of gold and 10 tons finest chakra conducting metal. In addition to that there is a special chakra sensitive stone and several other gems. Together this amounts to roughly 5% of Konohas reserves."

Then he walked over to the other side of the room. On that wall the doors were a lot bigger and Naruto recognized the clan seals immediately: Uchiha, Senju, Hyuga and an unmarked fourth door. The banker stepped up to it. Together with Narutos help he unsealed the gates and while pulling them open he began to explain.

"Before the destruction of the whirlpool village a good size of the villages gold reserves was brought to safety and stored here in the Konoha bank for safekeeping." The open gates revealed several big piles of gold and three swords in the back of the room. "The vault contains 150 tons of gold and several diamonds, equalling 20 percent of Konohas reserves. Additionally there are three family heirloom swords of unknown value."

The man pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his face because moving the heavy metal doors was hard work and because Konoha would soon be a lot poorer.

"As you can see together the content of both vaults amounts to one fourth of Konohas financial reserves. I have only one question: how do you plan to move all that stuff?" Naruto grinned at that

"No problem." He unsealed another of the big storage scrolls and rolled out both the new one and the one half filled with the stuff from the compound on the floor.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Fifty Narutos poofed into existence.

"All right everyone! Seal away!" And with that the clones began the tedious task of carrying the gold and the other stuff to the scrolls and sealing it away.

* * *

Two hours later both vaults were completely empty and Naruto strapped the two big storage scrolls to his back. Then they began their ascend back to earth level.

"So I guess once they contain something you can't seal the scrolls away anymore?"

"Yeah I really wish you could. It would save me from having to carry these things but I'll manage."

The banker nodded, he still couldn't completely comprehend how storing away so many tons of gold was possible.  
"By the way I have to inform you that as according to the First Hokages law I will make your 'transaction' known to the council in one day."

Naruto nodded "Of course."

They then reached the lobby.

"Anyway I hope you will return to Konoha one day, rebuilding your clan."

Naruto nodded "I would like that, too. Bye Mister!"

"Goodbye Mr Uzumaki-Namikaze."

Seconds after exiting the bank Naruto appeared outside of Konoha in a yellow flash where one of his clones had thrown a kunai over the wall.

* * *

One of his previously created clones was tasked to check whether there were any news about Hinata or anyone else of the Konoha twelve being in trouble. But the only interesting thing he could find was that after three months of probation Sasuke Uchiha was back on active duty.

Another clone came out of hiding in the middle of the night, he had bought a bit of paint and wrote on the mailbox of the Namikaze compound "Thanks. I'm out of here. NUN."


	3. Chapter 3: Losing and gaining sight

**Losing and gaining sight**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

One day after Narutos escape from Konoha

"So you are saying that Naruto Uzumaki stole one fourth of the villages financial reserves?"  
Village elder Homura was livid, in fact all of the village council was quite unhappy with the recent development.

"As I already stated earlier esteemed elder this was a completely valid transaction."

"What about the mansion? There were rumors a copy of the Whirlpools complete jutsu library was brought there before its demise." Danzo asked.

"Well just like the Namikaze and Uzumaki vaults in my bank, the mansion is completely empty. I visited it this morning and even most of the furniture is gone. All vanished into young Uzumaki-Namikaze's storage scrolls."

"Stop associating our village hero with that thing!" Elder Koharu was shrieking because of the stress at this point.

"I can guarantee you esteemed elder that Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze is the legitimate son of Minato Namikaze, the late fourth hokage. The seals clearly indicated that Naruto is indeed a Namikaze and all the other Namikaze perished long before Minato. And then there is the little fact that Minato was married to an Uzumaki."  
Most of the council's eyes rested on the hokage now, she was the only one who definitely had to know if this information was correct.

The hokage sighed, explaining this mess would definitely give her a headache.

* * *

Two weeks after Narutos escape from Konoha

Naruto appeared in a yellow flash inside of a dark laboratory. The laboratory belonged to Orochimaru and contained everything an evil scientist could dream of. There were tanks with strange creatures on the wall, the tables were littered with stuff and a lot of blubbering substances and there were two floating eyeballs in a jar. Naruto himself was breathing hard and clutching one hand to his right eye, which was visibly bleeding.

Naruto had found the entrance to this base of Orochimaru a few hours ago and had decided that armed with his fathers incredible jutsu he should do the world a favor and rid it of the crazed sanin. He had hidden his storage scrolls and then made his way into the snake's lair. The first thing that went wrong was that he didn't realize when he passed some kind of seal which cut him off from his retreat option, the Hiraishin Kunai which was resting outside beside his storage scrolls. But even worse than that was engaging Orochimaru himself. Even though the Hiraishin was superior to pretty much everything in the snake sanin's jutsu library, this really didn't help because Naruto lacked the speed, tactical awareness and overall experience that was needed to fight on same level as Orochimaru. Luckily he had thrown one Hiraishin kunai into this part of the laboratory a while earlier, and he could use it to catch his breath. But Naruto was sure that it couldn't be long until Orochimaru found him.

Naruto grabbed a kunai from his pouch and used its grinded blade as a mirror to look at his wounded eye. Naruto hadn't been fast enough and Orochimaru was able to stab him with his stupid blade. Naruto was no medical expert but he could clearly see that his right eye was completely destroyed.

Naruto reached out to the fox inside of him.

"Hey furball, let's say I was to lose an eye? What are the chances that it grows back thanks to your powers?"

"**HAHAHA! You pitiful human. Losing an eye. Serves you right**!"

Naruto left his mindscape, this was clearly not helping.

Naruto looked around in the dark room. He focused on the two eyeballs swimming in some kind of fluit. Naruto noticed that the eyes held the Sharingan, the famed dojutsu of the Uchiha clan. 'Why the hell doesn't Orochimaru use these eyes with his current body? As far as I know he is completely fixated on those things.' Apart from that a crazy idea sprouted in Naruto's head. And who was to stop him?

"**Please don't use those eyes**."

"What do you want fox?"

"**I don't like the Sharingan, don't use it mortal**!"

But then Naruto completely ignored any further comments from the demon fox. Naruto had been quite fed up with their recent interactions. Under heavy pain he removed the remains of his right eye from his eye socket. Then he grabbed one of the Sharingan eyes from the jar and plopped it into the empty socket. Under normal circumstances an eye transplantation should have never worked like that, but the powers of the demon fox helped immensely. Within minutes they bridged the small distance between the cut off nerves in Naruto's skull and the nerve ends on the back of the preserved eye and brought it back to live.

Naruto could see again. But only for a brief moment before his eye erupted in pain. It was a hot searing pain that seemed to run from his eye into his brain. Naruto was rolling on the floor clutching his eye and he was already close to ripping the eye back out again. But then the pain stopped as fast as it had come.

"What the hell was that?"

"**Take that Kunai out again and look at your eye, something has happened.**"

Naruto again took out the Kunai to take a look at his eye. He was surprised to find that the eye was wine colored with black rings in it.

"What the hell is that?"

"**The Rinnegan...** " There was a small silence "**Kit you should really take the other eye, too.**"

"What the heck? I won't give up my perfectly healthy left eye and weren't you completely against using those eyes a while ago?"

"**Kit just take the second eye and get out of here, we can talk about this later. You need to get away from Orochimaru.**"

"Ok now I am seriously freaked out, since when are concerned for my safety?"

"**As I said we can talk later.**"

Naruto quickly sealed the jar with the remaining eye into an empty storage scroll and then bolted out of the door into a dark corridor only to see Orochimaru and Kabuto coming around a corner on the far end of it. But luckily he could outrun them with the help of a few teleportations via his technique. Eventually Naruto reached the stairs to the surface and even though he had to leave some of his Hiraishin kunai behind he continued his escape. While bolting up the many steps Naruto could finally feel his kunai on the surface again and teleported to its position. He quickly grabbed his two storage scrolls and started putting as much distance between him and the lab as possible.

Two days of running and using the Hiraishin to try and lose possible trackers later, Naruto felt relatively safe again. Naruto sat down and entered his mindscape.

"Hello kit. I have a proposition for you. You use that second eye you got and allow me watch what you are doing and talk to you whenever I want. In exchange I will tell you everything about the day of your birth and my attack on Konoha."

"That sounds fair … but why are you so interested in those eyes?"

"**My fa... a friend of mine had the same eyes. And let's just say you remind me of him. I might tell you more another time**."

"Allright I will implant the eye now and then you can tell me about the day of my birth."

* * *

The new eye was already in its place and like the other one it had painfully turned into the Rinnegan. Naruto was recounting what the fox had told him.

"So that Madara guy set you free and made you attack the village. But after he was gone you of course didn't just stop, forcing my father and mother to work together to seal you. While doing that they were mortally wounded by you, but my father would have died anyway because of the sealing method and my mother would have eventually died because you were ripped out of her."

"**Well not entirely accurate but that's about the gist of it.**"

"All right. So what about these eyes?"

"**That is the strongest dojutsu in existence, the Rinnegan. It gives its wearer seven different new abilities. He can only have one of those active at a time, but he can kind of give the other abilities to another body and control it. The Rinnegan allows its user to learn all of the different elemental jutsu. Additionally it gives better eyesight, basic chakra seeing abilities and lets you share your sight with those mentioned other bodies.**"

"Other bodies? Like corpses?"

"**That would be gross wouldn't it? No you should be able to use those shadow clones of yours. Now try to focus chakra into your eyes to access those powers**."

It took Naruto several hours to figure out how to access the different abilities. When he poured chakra into his eyes in a specific way he could practically see or rather feel 7 rings, from which he could choose one to access. He figured out the ability of each ring, or Path as the fox called them. But he was still far away from completely mastering them.

"**Let me recount what we have learned. You possess the following paths:**  
**Deva - lets you control gravity**  
**Asura - lets you transform your body into several metal weapons, you should stop using that with your real body**  
**Human - possesses mind reading abilities, probably mind altering ones, too**  
**Preta - can absorb chakra, allowing you to stop any chakra based techniques**  
**Elemental - allows you to create creatures made of the different elements, you still need a lot of training on that one**  
**Protection - allows you to create nearly unbreakable barriers in your line of sight**  
**Healing - has an excellent healing ability, it should enable you to heal normally mortal wounds** "

One day later Naruto figured out how to grant his rinnegan abilities to his shadowclones. First he needed to create some sort of chakra conducting metal by pouring chakra in a special way into his wrist. The process of drawing the metal from his body was really gross and Naruto hated that part. Then he needed to create a shadow clone while focusing on the path he wanted to create. The shadow clone would just vanish after a few minutes if it didn't insert some of the chakra conducting metal into itself. Since the metal contained the same chakra as the clone himself the clone wasn't destroyed by it. By adding the chakra metal the path clone was complete.

Naruto had a much more direct link to those clones than to his normal ones. He could give and take messages and orders to and from those clones and could see what they saw. This was highly disorientating at first. Naruto and his newly created paths would stagger around, trying to concentrate on the correct field of view, while the fox only laughed.

While training his rinnegan Naruto found out the best way for him to travel. In the morning he sent out a couple of shadow clones with some Hiraishin kunai and spend the day training himself. The clones would leave one Kunai on their way every few kilometers. In the evening after training Naruto would then pack up and start using Hiraishin on one of those kunai after another picking them up in the process. By doing this he could do both training and travelling on the same day.

* * *

One week after gaining the Rinnegan:

"Hey furball"

"**What do you want kit**?"

"Wait a second do you have a name? Addressing you by insults seems to be getting old these days. "

"**Name's Kurama. And don't get soft on me.**"

"Alright Kurama, you see I realized that I can't switch my eyes off. And since I am kind of travelling while trying to stay hidden, these one of a kind eyes seem really inconvenient."

**"You are right kit, not to mention that people might want to attack you just to get your eyes.**"

"Yeah so can I do something about that?"

"**As far as I know transplanted dojutsus are always active no matter what you do. I may be able to do something, but you would need to trust me for that.**"

"Alright Kurama, do it!"

He allowed the fox's chakra to flow out of the seal and could feel it make its way through his chakra pathways and into his eyes. After a few minutes he blacked out from the pain.

**AN: I changed Narutos paths mainly because I didn't want any resurrection / soul based techniques.**


	4. Chapter 4: Westwards

**Westwards**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto was slowly waking up from his pain induced sleep.

"**Welcome back kit. Did you have nice dreams? Of a certain pale eyed vixen perhaps**?"

"Shut up fox, you could have warned me that this would hurt so much."

"**It's not exactly like I do this everyday kit. How should I have known**?"

Naruto sighed and took out a kunai to take look at his eyes. He could see cerulean blue orbs reflected on the steel.  
"Wow Kurama you are awesome, it is even the same eye color."

"**Heh. Of course I am awesome. I am the Kyuubi no kitsune after all**."

Naruto briefly poured a bit of chakra into his eyes and saw them change into the rinnegan before he released the chakra and they changed back.  
"This is sooo cool!"

Then a puff of smoke alerted him. Sitting before him was Gamakichi.

"Hey Naruto are you alright? When I checked on you earlier you were rolling on the floor in pain."

"Hey Gamakichi. I'm good, that was nothing." He grinned and rubbed the back of his neck

"So what are you doing here? Any word from the old pervert?"

"Yeah, in fact I am supposed to take you to him. But Ma and Pa guarantee you that we will bring you back here as soon as you want."

"Alright, do it."

First Gamakichi vanished and a few minutes later Naruto suddenly found himself at the beautiful MT Myōboku. After gazing around the landscape for a bit he focused his attention to the toad sage standing in front of him

"Hey Gaki"

"Hi ero-sennin"

"Would you mind telling me why in the world you are listed as an A-class missing nin in the newest bingo book?"

"How come you don't know? All of Konoha has been after me for several months now."

"Well I have been sent on a long mission by Tsunade shortly after you returned from capturing that Sasuke kid."  
Naruto blinked, had Tsunade purposely kept Jiraiya out of everything?

"Well you see Tsunade had me arrested by a bunch of anbu for no reason and wanted to hand me over to that Danzo fellow. They said the fox was controlling me or something like that."

"You know that you were the reason Tsunade decided to become hokage. Her just deciding you pose too great a risk to the village doesn't make any sense."

"Well I don't know maybe someone brainwashed her or something?"

"Ok Gaki I will see what I can find out. For now try to stay out of trouble until I get this problem solved. And avoid the Akatsuki at all costs, keeping you safe will be really difficult for now. And I guess you won't be able to get any meaningful training until this is over."

'**Naruto I know you are dying to show off your new abilities but for now you should pretend he is right.**'

Naruto nodded. Jiraiya took a small look at his seal and soon Naruto said goodbye to his sensei and the toads and was brought back to his previous location.

* * *

_Three months after Naruto's escape from Konoha_

Naruto was currently restocking his supplies in Takigakure. Additionally he had bought a few new clothes.

'**Kit I can feel there is another jinchuriky nearby, only two streets ahead**.'

'Ok Kurama we'll check it out. But we have to keep a low profile and not do anything to alert this village of our presence.'

When they entered the indicated street they saw a girl with green hair rolled up into a ball with several other children around her. She was about the same age as Naruto. The other children seemed to have a lot of fun with throwing things at the girl and shouts like "Monster!" and other insults could be heard.

'Scratch keeping a low profile. We will get this girl out of here, if she wants to go.'

* * *

_One year after Naruto's escape from Konoha_

Naruto and the girl, who had been identified as Fu had arrived in the far west outside of the great ninja nations. Naruto and Fu had trained together all the time and both had become significantly stronger. Fu had almost no real ninja training before her time with Naruto, but Naruto was able to teach her all the basics and currently she was progressing well in her study of lightning jutsu.

Naruto himself had mastered the elements of wind and fire and many jutsu associated with them. His control over the different paths of the Rinnegan was nearly flawless. He had no problem coordinating all of his paths in confined spaces or spreading them out over several kilometers. The path allowing him to create elemental beasts was the only one not completely unlocked since he still hadn't mastered all the elements and the creation of wind beasts proved to be quite difficult. But Naruto liked his fire elementals a lot, they consumed quite a bit of chakra but they were a fearsome sight and their heat was enormous. He had taken a personal liking to the gravitational powers of the Deva path. So he kept that to himself and spread the other abilities among his clones. Additionally Naruto had learned quite a bit of sealing techniques and even started developing his own seals.

He still hadn't heard anything from the old toad sage since their last meeting and he was wondering what could have happened or what the old geezer had learned to continue to avoid Naruto.

The western lands were war riddled and poor. Dozens of little warlords were trying to gain more influence and land through constant warfare. Bandits plagued the land and stole whatever the constant wars hadn't taken from the population.  
Most of the soldiers serving the warlords were normal people or samurai. Knowledge about ninja techniques was a rare thing and the secrets of those techniques were closely guarded by a few elitist clans.

It was still before noon and Naruto and Fu were doing their daily training exercises when one of Narutos scouting clones dismissed himself. Naruto learned about a small town with a castle nearby. In the local arena there was seemingly going to be some sort of event. Naruto and Fu decided to take a look.

After a few Hiraishin teleportations, during which Naruto carried the girl, they reached their destination. There were several groups of soldiers located in small camps all around the city. Many people were going towards the arena so Naruto and Fu decided to do the same.

By asking a random stranger they found out that the local warlord had perished in the last battle and they were holding a tournament to determine the next one. To enter it was required to pledge a substantial amount of soldiers to the small nations cause or give a great amount of money or a combination of both.

'Fox? I am seriously thinking about going into the tournament. I mean i doesn't look like I will be able to return to Konoha soon and maybe I can help these people as warlord.'

'**Go for it. Travelling around and training all the time has become boring**.'

"Fu what do you think? How does Warlord Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze sound?"

"Can't we just keep travelling alone? I don't like being around idiots." Naruto sweat dropped, the girl trusted him but still had severe problems with being around other people.

"Fu you have to eventually be able to interact with other people. Besides they don't know jinchuriki or tailed beasts in this lands so they won't hate us."

"All right. All right. But if they turn against us we get out of here."

Naruto made his way to some official looking men, who were obviously keeping each competitors commitment as there was already quite a heap of gold and gems next to them. On their table were dozens of papers, seemingly containing details about the promised soldiers.

"I want to join the tournament." The officials looked at him a bit skeptically but let it go.

"Can you pledge any soldiers to our cause?"

"Well if I win there will be one really strong one helping us." At this the girl with green hair standing next to the blonde waved towards the officials."But I would rather simply pay in gold."

"Ok you will have to pay ten tons in gold then, but you only have half an hour left to get it here."

Naruto shrugged, took one of the storage scrolls from his back and unsealed the required amount. The officials just stared at him.

"D-Do you want to register any additional fighters?" One of officials thought the blonde was maybe an easy source of money for the region.

"Nah thank you. Sorry Fu but I'd like to do this alone." Fu nodded.

"Is that all?"

The officials nodded.

"What are the rules for the tournament?"

"Everything goes. Most of the other competitors have registered a bunch of fighters relative to the amount of money and men they could provide, which means you will be severely outnumbered."

Naruto shrugged, numbers definitely wouldn't help them.

"Well if that's all I'll be going now."

Naruto nodded towards them and then made his way into the arena

* * *

In one corner of the arena the designated competitors were arguing on how to organize the tournament. They couldn't come to a consent on how to pick the fighters and whether it would be one on one or group fights.

Naruto simply strode into the middle of the arena, enhanced his voice by chakra and cleared his throat.  
"All right people the name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, future Kage or whatever you call your supreme leader here. You there! " With that he pointed to the group of competitors who had stopped arguing and stared at the boy. "I will earn the title of warlord today and it won't matter if you attack me one at a time or together. Come at me!"

Naruto could have easily won the tournament just by catapulting all his enemies out of the stadium using his deva path. But he wanted to impress his soon to be subjects and convince them of his strength. A perfect opportunity to flaunt his abilities. He quickly activated his Rinnegan and created his six paths. Instead of creating new chakra metal to control them he unsealed some existing one.

First a single samurai made his way towards naruto, a large katana resting on his shoulder. Naruto decided to take on the man by himself. He simply took out one kunai and charged. His taijutsu had improved along with the rest of his abilities and even though the samurai had the range advantage he didn't stand a chance. After exchanging a series of blows Naruto stopped the katana with the help of his kunai and kicked the man's wrist, sending his weapon flying. His next strike rendered the man unconscious.

Then a big group of about twenty samurai darted towards Naruto, their swords ready to strike. Naruto decided to simply create a hundred shadow clones and let them do the work. It didn't take long and all the samurai were overwhelmed by the numbers and the clones knocked each of them out. Then Naruto dismissed the clones.

Three people in similar clothing, clan members most likely, started pulling throwing knifes out of thin air and throwing them towards Naruto and his paths. The protection path stepped forward and created several purple shimmering barriers in mid air that stopped the projectiles. After they had seemingly run out of ammunition Narutos Preta path quickly incapacitated one of them using a strike to the solar plexus. Then he grabbed the other two by their throats, held them up in the air and started sucking out their chakra through his hands. They struggled for a bit and then fell into unconsciousness. The path let them go and they collapsed on the ground.

Narutos Asura path stood in a group of competitors using his metal enforced limbs to block swords and pummel his enemies. He then shot out metal tendrils out of one of this hands that restrained his remaining adversaries and strangled them into unconsciousness.

Two enemies charged at Naruto from different directions. Naruto quickly did a few handseals "Fuuton: Daitoppa" a wave of wind flung the enemy charging him from the front into the arena walls. Then Naruto extended one arm in the direction of the other enemy and catapulted him into the other side of the wall using his gravitational abilities. He heard bones snap and realized that he had used a bit too much force, so he sent his healing path to help the man.

Narutos human path used a low powered Rasengan to bring down one enemy but then he was destroyed by a man who could manipulate water without handsigns, using it like a whip. Naruto quickly threw a few Kunai at the man then teleported towards him using Hiraishin and incapacitated the surprised man.

A single enemy, another samurai, was left standing. Naruto sent most of his remaining chakra to his elemental path, allowing him to create a giant fire elemental, which could only be described as a walking inferno. Heat radiated through the whole arena. His last competitor shrieked and ran away. The fire elemental dispersed shortly after that.

Naruto stood proudly in the arena among the horde of defeated enemies. Most people were staring silently at him because they couldn't believe what they had witnessed. Well except a small girl with green hair.

"Woohoo you rock Naruto-niisan!"

And soon the rest of the arena joined in celebrating their new warlord.

* * *

Flashback: on the day of Narutos escape

The Hokage was currently recounting the events as they were told by the witnesses.

"So Naruto broke his chains using the fox's powers. He then knocked out everyone in his way. Somehow he exited the I&T department without being spotted and created a bunch of shadow clones to throw his pursuers off. He is still on the run at this point."

Shino, Hinata and Tenten nodded.

"That is not entirely correct lady Hokage." Kurenai was speaking up and the rookies became nervous "The other two are only trying to protect her, but I know that Hinata actively assisted Naruto by knocking me unconscious and she was most likely responsible for freeing him from his chains, too. As her sensei I am truly sorry for this occurrence. Unfortunately she obviously still has feelings for the boy and acted on them because of her small experience. I request being allowed to personally choose and perform her punishment."

But that request was denied to Kurenai. There was no trial or official statement. Hinata simply disappeared on that day.


	5. Chapter 5: Hinata back in action

**Hinata back in action**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_One year after Narutos escape from Konoha_

Hinata was dragged to the office of Danzo Shimura by two anbu. She was extremely pale and thin. When the anbu pushed her into the office she had trouble regaining her balance and even staying upright. On her forehead was the mark of the cursed seal of the Hyuuga clan.

"Ah Ms Hyuuga it has been more than one year hasn't it?"

Danzo clearly waited for some kind of response from her but none came.

"You see normally traitors to the village are immediately executed in public. You are fortunate that we couldn't afford to have the honor of the Hyuuga blemished by the stupid actions of one little girl."

Again he left a pause to allow her to say something but she just stared at him.

"Anyway even though you betrayed the village I still plan to make use of your abilities. You see there are some missions, assassination missions mostly, in which the survival rate is especially low. Sending good and loyal ninja on those missions is always a painful thing to do."

"Y-Y-You w-want to u-use m-me for s-suicide missions."

"Exactly Ms Hyuuga and if you run away or are simply too late on your return, we will activate your cursed seal, cutting off all loose ends. You should already know that you will nowhere be safe from us activating it, should the need arise."

Hinata collapsed, her weakened muscles unable to support her.

"Well of course you will get a few months to rebuild your strength beforehand. Good luck Ms Hyuuga." Then she was dragged out of the office by the anbu to begin her training.

* * *

_One year later_

Hinata knew she was in big trouble. So far she had successfully completed three assassinations and one intelligence gathering mission and she had never gotten as desperate as she was now. Finding her target, which was travelling with its small army had taken far more time than she would have liked already. But the security measures around the camp were what was really giving her headaches.

Hinata really didn't like this assignment. Her previous targets had been one corrupt government official, one drug lord and a B-class missing nin hiding in Kumo. After she had read each targets files and gathered information about them, she didn''t have any qualms killing every one of them. But this time things were different.  
She was to eliminate an uprising warlord in the western lands, who was seemingly succeeding in uniting the war torn land. So far he controlled about one third of the overall region. There hadn't even been any big battles to accomplish that since he had used diplomacy, surgical strikes and the assassination of a particular cruel warlord to get this far. But most of the conquered warlords had joined his side after he had challenged them to personal battle. His strength had become legendary.

The warlord had started a campaign against the local bandit groups and succeeded in driving most of them away. The lands had become significantly safer and the civilian population could go about their daily work safely again. Additionally the warlord had negotiated a trade agreement with Suna and wares travelled to and from the great ninja nations that way. The region was starting to recuperate.

Out of fear of losing their power the remaining warlords had joined together into several alliances. But those would break apart when their common thread was gone, this warlord however had the possibility to truly unite the land. And the leaf, or Danzo rather, didn't want that to happen.

Hinata had been impressed about what she had learned about the man and even considered abandoning her mission, but that would have meant certain death and no matter how unlikely it had become, she was still trying to keep her promises to Naruto. Besides her target had a whole army surrounding him, so if she somehow managed to kill him, it would basically be his own fault.

Hinata was currently following a supply carriage drawn by an old horse and manned by two civilians. To her luck the carriage stopped and one of the civilians stepped into the foliage surrounding the road, presumably to take a leak. Hinata snuck up on the man and after a juken strike to the neck he fell to the floor unconscious. She searched his body and produced a few official looking documents which she put into her pockets. Then she used henge to take on the man's appearance and went towards the carriage. Without a word she sat down beside the other civilian and they made their way towards the army camp.

She had tried to approach the camp before. The small ditch with wooden spikes in it and the small wooden palisade would both have been a joke for someone with her abilities and training. But in addition to that the camp was surrounded by seals and Hinata didn't want to test what would happen once she crossed them uninvited. To normal eyes the seals were just lines out of white condensed pulver running all around the camp in weaving lines. But to her Byakugan eyes the flow of a vast amount of chakra through the seal and its intricate patterns was a beautiful thing. She was sure she was dealing with a true seal master so any head on approach had been discarded.

When they arrived at the gates of the camp a single soldier stepped forward and demanded their papers. Hinata simply handed him the ones she had stolen from the civilian. The soldier took a brief glance at them before he took out two paper seals and gave both herself and her travelling companion one of them to hold in their hands. When she touched the paper Hinata could feel a brief surge of chakra. If the soldier had had any ninja training he would have seen Hinatas transformation falter for a split second when the foreign chakra entered her. Or he would have just sensed her transformation in the first place. But neither was the case and he lazily waved them along.  
Inside of the camp another soldier collected the paper tags from them and designated them to a storage tent. Hinata helped the civilian to unload the cart to avoid suspicion and then investigated the rest of the camp.

The soldiers scattered throughout the camp seemed to be in good spirits. There was chattering everywhere, weapons were sharpened and boars were roasting over several bigger fires. In what seemed to be an area designated for training she saw dozens of soldiers sparring with different weapons. And there was a small group of soldiers training basic chakra control techniques. It was nothing truly impressive and the men were probably too old to ever get anywhere beyond chunin level, but it was a start. It was obvious that this warlord would want to found a ninja village of his own eventually and Hinata gathered that it was just another reason why Danzo wanted him dead.

Then she saw her target walking away from her. She recognized the blond hair and black armor with an orange fox emblem on it from the stories. She could see he was younger than she had expected and he was walking carefree through the camp with a green haired girl of the same age to one side of him and a black haired man in a kimono on the other. The blonde had a strange piercing coming out of the back of his neck. The three of them were inspecting soldiers and wares delivered to the camp. Somehow the man, or boy rather, seemed familiar even though she could not see his face, but Hinatas mind had entered professional mode. This was her chance, she would perform the assassination and escape in the confusion.

She ran up to the group and jumped. Slamming her knees into the blonde's back she forced him to the ground. At the same time she slammed down her left palm onto his back, right where his his heart was and channeled enough chakra through her hand to make it explode. She was experienced enough that she didn't even have to use her Byakugan to safely hit her mark. The body vanished into a puff of smoke.

Hinata didn't have any time to really contemplate what had happened. In the next moment the green haired girl was upon her, wielding twin kukri crackling with electricity. Hinata managed to gain a little distance by throwing an explosion tag directly at her feet and she and the green haired girl got away from it in different directions. After the explosion Hinata had to start avoiding throwing knifes the black haired man produced out of nowhere and thanks to her swiftness and agility she managed to avoid all of them.

She was just about to activate her Byakugan when suddenly Hinatas whole body was yanked back with great force. She flew several meters through the air as if carried by invisible strings and then something hit her on the back of her head. Everything went black.

* * *

Hinata awoke a while later. She expected to be in chains and heavily guarded. Instead she found herself on a comfortable bed and her hands and feet were free. Judging from the ceiling she was inside of a big army tent and a classy one at that. She looked around and saw Naruto sitting by her side, looking at her. He was a lot taller than she remembered and he was dressed in the armor of the local warlord. Fate had played another sick prank on her: Naruto himself was her target. Of course she would not kill him, but that meant certain death. Hinata began to cry.

"Shh it's ok Hinata." Naruto stroked his fingers through her hair.

Hinata grabbed onto him and wept into his shoulder.

"What happened to you Hinata why do you have the caged bird seal and the other seal?"

"K-Kurenai sensei t-told the H-hokage what happened. T-Tsunade h-handed me o-over to Danzo and h-he makes me do missions for him a-and will activate the seal if I fail. N-naruto I'm s-so sorry. I-I was trying to kill you!" Hinata broke out into fresh tears.

"It's alright Hinata I'm fine." Naruto was stroking the back of Hinata's head which was still resting on his shoulder.  
"But why didn't I find out about you being arrested? I gathered information about what happened in the leaf whenever I could. If I had known I would have gotten you out of there before any of this happened."

Hinata sniffed but calmed down a bit. "Danzo said they didn't want me to ruin the clans reputation."

Naruto shook his head. "Bastards."

"Naruto what should I do? They will activate the cursed seal in two weeks and there is no way that I fulfill my assignment."

"I promise you Hinata I will find a way to remove that seal from you before that. You will be safe here." He said that even though he wasn't exactly sure if he could do it. He had already tried to remove the cursed seal while she was sleeping and failed miserably.  
"Will you stay here with me?"

Hinata smiled at him and nodded "Of course Naruto-kun." She let her head hang low. "I mean it isn't really like I could return even if I wanted to. I guess I will never be able to change my clan."

Naruto continued to stroke her hair to try and comfort her.  
"We will figure something out, ok?"

"N-Naruto-kun? You said something about another seal on me earlier, how did you know about that?"

"Well since I've been training sealing techniques I discovered that I have really good intuition when it comes to seals. I guess it is kind of a bloodline since my father was a sealmaster and my mother's clan was famous for their seals, too. Long story short I could basically sense the seal. Am I correct that it seals off your ovaries and prevents you from having kids?"

Hinata nodded. Danzo had been very careful in avoiding the Byakugan from falling into foreign hands.

Naruto grinned. "Then we should do something about that." He winked at her.

Hinata fainted.

"Dammit! I was just joking!"

'**Are you sure about that kit**?'

* * *

After Hinata woke up they continued to talk for a while. Naruto told her a bit about his travels and his time as warlord.

'**Hey kit I have an idea, I need to talk to the both of you**.'

"Uhm Hinata Kyuubi wants to talk to us both."

"What?"

"Well you see we've been getting along quite well since the whole eye incident."

"Eye incident?"

"Wait I'll show you." Naruto briefly flashed his Rinnegan. "Cool huh? I'll show you what it can do later. Anyway Kurama has really helped me out in the past and I guess we kind of are friends now." He grinned. "I promise he won't eat you."

Hinata just nodded, she was a bit dazed by this information. Naruto produced a sheet of paper, drew a seal on it and attached the tag to her forehead. Then he got into a meditative position while holding her hands and told her to do the same.

* * *

A few moments later they were standing inside of the sewer of Naruto's mindscape.

"**Hello Naruto. Hello little vixen**." He gave her his biggest predatory grin

"Eeep!"

"Stop teasing her Fox."

Then Hinata remembered her manners. "U-Um h-hello Lord Kyuubi."

"**Just call me Kurama girl. Anyway listen you two. You have two major problems. First is the obvious one: the seals on her. You are currently unable to remove them and if I may take a guess I would say it will take you years to gain the necessary skill. We may be able to negotiate with the leaf, offering them funds and whatever they want but they will bleed us dry and may decide to activate the seal at any time.**"

Naruto and Hinata nodded.

"**Then there is the second problem: your vixen is weak**." Hinata got depressed again while Naruto became extremely angry.

"What? Shut up you stupid fox! Hinata is not weak!"

"**But she is. If the chunin exams are any indication her chakra reserves are low, she has little stamina and apart from that she is quite … fragile**."

Naruto was close to jumping into the foxes cage to pummel the stupid animal.

"H-he is right N-Naruto." Hinata was crying a little at this point but the fox just continued.

"**Of course I am right. Anyway this poses a big problem. Since you won't always be able to protect her and if things go as I think they will, you would be absolutely devastated if she ever got hurt, captured or killed**."

Hinata threw a hopeful glance at Naruto, who still glared at the fox.

"**But all of that doesn't matter because I have thought of something which would solve both of those problems.**"

Both Narutos and Hinatas eyes grew wide at that statement.

"Y-You mean y-you can remove the seals and make me stronger?" Hinata stared at him hopefully.

"**That's what I just said. But of course what I propose is quite drastic to be able to achieve so much.**"

"What do you mean?"

**"I recommend unsealing me and resealing me into Hinata.**"

"WHAT? I - I mean there is so much wrong with that! Unsealing you would kill me and as far as I know sealing you into her would kill her, too!"

"**Relax kit, I have thought of everything. First I will give you a small portion of my demonic chakra to keep, that should keep you alive. Second the reason why mature hosts die is because we tailed beasts have the option to kill them. You see all seals allow a tailed beast to leak a small amount of demonic chakra into the host's system and while the undeveloped chakra pathways of newborns can adopt immediately, the more rigid pathways of older people take longer to do so. So as long as I don't release too much chakra into her system and let her adapt to me, she will be fine.**"

"And you can get rid of the seals?"

"**Since I will have direct access to her chakra pathways and can help her heal any potential damage that should be no problem.**"

"H-how can you m-make me stronger?"

"**Well the obvious thing is that over time your chakra pathways will widen substantially to accommodate to my presence and your chakra reserves will grow. Additionally you will have self healing abilities thanks to my chakra. And then there is the reason why Naruto could never access my full power, but it will be possible for Hinata with a completely new seal.**"

Naruto nodded in understanding "The missing key."

**"Exactly, to the eight trigrams seal as the fourth used it belongs a key, which allows to safely strengthen and weaken the seal. When you are strong enough you could even unleash me myself little vixen**."

Hinata staggered a bit at that prospect.  
"B-but what about Naruto? I-I don't want him to be in danger because I take your powers from him."

"**I don't think that will be a problem. Among his other talents he possesses those freakish eyes of his and will be perfectly capable of defending himself. Because of his Senju bloodline and my remaining chakra he should even retain a bit of his self healing ability. By the way: Just like my own powers his eyes naturally increase their wearers chakra reserves, but since there is a limit to how fast a persons reserves can grow a lot of that potential growth is wasted at the moment.**"

"Alright fox let me talk to Hinata about this for a moment. And if we agree I will make the necessary arrangements."

* * *

Naruto exited his mindscape and he and Hinata stared at each other.

"So what do you think?"

"I-I don't know. C-Can we trust him? A-and is it really safe that y-you won't die?"

"Well as I said I trust Kurama and see him as a friend and he even had the perfect possibility to harm me in the past if he had wanted to. Anyway if he thinks we will both get through this alive I believe him. Hinata I really hate seeing you at the whims of that Danzo jerk and I see no other way to help you. So please let us do this."

"O-ok Naruto."

"Heh it's funny actually. If we were still in Konoha I would never agree to this, because I wouldn't want you to bear that burden and be looked down upon by everyone else. But here people look up to me. They know of the Kyuubi and they respect me for it. And Kurama really isn't such bad company when you get to know him."

Hinata smiled, she was happy Naruto had found a place where people saw him for who he was.

"Alright let's do this!"

Naruto entered hyper mode. He gathered sealing equipment, rummaged through scrolls and cleared the middle of the large tent. He went through a couple of hand seals and a small sealing altar appeared, just big enough for a newborn baby. There was a circle of lit candles around it.  
Naruto and Hinata stared at the thing.

"Uhm well you should sit down … I guess?"

Hinata nodded and sat down on the far too small altar.

"Take off your jacket and roll up your shirt a bit, I will need access to your belly."

When Hinata took off her anbu jacket and sat before him in a black shirt Naruto couldn't help but notice that she had developed quite well in certain areas. He started blushing. 'I am not a pervert. I am not a pervert. Concentrate dammit!'

Naruto got into a meditative stance in front of Hinata and entered his mindscape.

* * *

Naruto looked up to the big fox, who was towering above him once more.

"We are ready, Kurama."

"**Then let's get started kit, rip off that seal**."

Naruto went towards the giant gates, he noted that the paper seal was far too high to reach, but somehow his intention to access the seal caused him to float into the air towards it. When he was right in front of it he unceremoniously ripped it off. The giant gates burst open and Naruto was flung back a bit into the sewer water.

"Naruto what are you doing?"

Kurama and Naruto stared at the newcomer.

"Dad? Dad!"

Naruto jumped the former Hokage Minato Namikaze who had appeared suddenly and grabbed him in a fierce hug.

"Naruto why have you freed the ninetails?"

"Well I kind of have to seal him into a friend of mine to help her."

"I see..." Minato was currently accessing some of Naruto's memories and one those unnerved him quite a bit. "You have left the leaf village?"

"Yeah I really didn't want to. But things went bad and I think Tsunade-baachan is being manipulated somehow."

Minato nodded.

"**I don't mean to disturb this tearful reunion but I am kind of having problems containing my chakra now that the seal is wide open.**" Minato stared at the Kyuubi.

Naruto detached himself from his father.

"What do I need to do?"

"**Come here kit, grab onto me and pull. By doing that you should be able to draw out a portion of my chakra. Then cut it off from me with something sharp**."

Naruto did as he was told, made his way towards the fox inside the open cage and began to pull. He drew a wide stream of red chakra from the beast.

"**Alright stop kit, don't be greedy**."

Naruto nodded, he pulled out a kunai and separated the stream of chakra from the Kyuubi. He could feel the separated power become a part of himself.

In a puff of smoke another person appeared in the room.

"Kushina?"

"Mom?"  
Again Naruto captured the newcomer into a hug. He was crying tears of happiness now.

"I am so glad I get to meet you. But how is this possible?"

Minato grabbed the back of his head "That would be my doing. I sealed some of my own and your mothers chakra into you to help you."

Naruto smiled and leaned closer to Kushina.

Kurama cleared his throat, not breaking free was getting increasingly difficult.

Minato spoke up "Naruto I will perform the sealing. I will make sure you have some time to talk to your mom."

"Thanks dad." Minato ruffled his hair.

"I know you will make me proud Naruto, make sure your mother tells you about a certain enemy you will have to face in the future."

Naruto nodded and the fourth Hokage vanished from the mindscape.

"Now Naruto you have to tell me how you have been."

"OK, but you will have to tell me how you met dad." Naruto grinned.

"Sure!"

While they were talking the Kyuubi started to be drawn out the mindscape but they paid it no mind.

* * *

Minato took control of Naruto's body, he went through several hand seals and concentrated on the Kyuubi, then he slammed his hand onto Hinatas belly. All the time she had been anxiously waiting for the sealing to occur. Minato could feel the fox's chakra being drawn out of Naruto's body and into the girl and let his own remaining chakra be drawn with it. There was still one thing he had to find out from the demon.

"Why are you helping them?"

"**Heh wouldn't you want to know**?"

"It's the Rikudou Sennin's prophecy isn't it? Naruto is the Sage of the Six Paths reborn."

The fox grinned at the former Hokage "**No I am sure that Naruto is not the reincarnation of the Sage of the Six Paths**."

"What do you mean?"

"**I won't tell you.**" The fox grinned even wider. "**Consider this your punishment for sealing me away against my will.**"

Minato continued to try to get more information from the fox but soon his chakra was spent and he vanished.

**A/N: The amount of chakra drawn from the Kyuubi is significantly less than in the manga. Naruto won't be able to enter Kyuubi mode.**


	6. Chapter 6: Negotiations

**Negotiations**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto woke up with a terribly aching back. He noticed that they had spent the night on the floor. The sealing altar was gone and Hinata was still sleeping, her head resting on his shoulder, snuggled against him.

'We must have passed out after the sealing.'

Naruto gently wiped a few strands of hair out of Hinata's face and noticed her unmarked forehead.

'Nice work Kurama!'

No answer.

'Dammit!'

Naruto had become quite accustomed to the presence of the ninetails. He briefly wondered if he would go insane because the demon fox was NOT talking inside his head anymore. He carefully detached himself from Hinata not to wake up the sleeping girl, gently picked her up and placed her on the single bed in the tent. Then he went about his morning routine.

* * *

An hour later Hinata awoke, she had slept extremely well and felt well rested. Somehow she remembered lying on something really comfortable, but this bed didn't seem to fit the bill.

'**Good morning vixen**.'

"Eeep!" The voice had completely startled her.

'**Heheh teasing you will be so much fun. Anyway take a look in the mirror will you**.'

After she had gotten her bearings and remembered yesterdays events, she went towards the big mirror located in one corner of the tent and immediately realized that the curse mark was gone.

'You have already managed to remove it. I am deep in your debt Kurama-san.'

'**Well sorry to tell you this but I could not push enough power through you to really break the seal. Instead I activated its secondary function, sealing off your Byakugan and consuming the seal in the process. But I promise you I will be able to restore your eyes powers in a few weeks**.'

Hinata nodded, losing her Byakugan was a small price to pay for her freedom and if she was able to use it again soon, even better.

Naruto entered the tent his Rinnegan active.

"Good morning Hinata. Wanna grab some breakfast? I would like to introduce you to my captains, too."

"Sure Naruto-kun. Ano why do you have your eyes active?"

"Well you see among other things they give me the ability to summon special clones which I can control all the time. I can see what they see and if there is a difficult problem they can directly talk to me about it through a mind link. I let them do most of the boring stuff while it gives me time to train and do other things.  
Anyway let's go!" He grabbed her hand and led her to a big tent with several tables, which were loaded with food."

Naruto introduced her to the black haired man from the day before, who identified himself as Kentaro Yamamoto, leader of the Yamamoto clan. The Yamamoto all had the ability to store a certain amount of items in a pocket dimension for later use. Then there were Seigan Ashikage an old, grey haired and war seasoned samurai veteran and Genri Takeda, member of the Takeda clan, who used birds both for scouting and in combat. Genri had a falcon on his shoulder and fed him from time to time while eating breakfast himself. Naruto told Hinata that he had several other captains, who were currently on missions, spread out throughout the country.

* * *

After breakfast Naruto briefly showed Hinata around the camp.

"Ano can I wash up somewhere?"

Naruto nodded. "Sure but the possibilities to do that inside the camp are quite limited, I'll take you to the river where Fu and I go." He unceremoniously picked her up and suddenly they were standing near a small creek. Right before them was a deeper and wider spot inside the stream, where the water was flowing slowly, allowing to take a swim.

"W-What was that?"

"Hehe that's my fathers technique, the Hiraishin. Anyway I'll pick you back up in half an hour." And in a flash he was gone.

Hinata stripped down and waded into the water. The water was cold, but on her missions Hinata had grown accustomed to such circumstances. So she didn't mind and soon grew quite relaxed while swimming a few rounds. Suddenly an electric shock went through her, more irritating than painful.

"Eeep!"

The girl with green hair was walking towards her on the water, lightning still crackling in her right hand. She stopped right in front of the still submerged Hinata, towering above her and trying to look intimidating.

"You tried to hurt my niisan." But on her face was more of a pout than an angry stare.

Hinata felt a bit relieved. She had wondered what kind of relation Naruto had to the green haired girl and it seemed she didn't see him as a potential partner.

"I am very sorry for attacking Naruto-kun. I would never want him harmed. He was very dear to me back in the leaf village" 'and is so still.'

The girl nodded and let the lightning in her hand fade out. "He told me about you and how you saved him. Anyway I'm Fu. Nice to meet ya!"

"I'm Hinata Hyuuga. How did you get to know Naruto-kun? You seem to have much better ninja training than anyone else I met here."

The girl shuddered slightly "Naruto rescued me from Takigakure. I was … not welcome there because I contain the seven tailed beetle."

"Has Naruto told you that he sealed Kurama into me?"

Fu nodded. "He did and now that you're like me … do you want to be my neesan?" She asked this with somewhat exaggerated innocence.

"Yes I would like that very much."

The girl grinned. "Then you will have to earn that."

Hinata nodded.

"Naruto asked earlier me earlier if I could help him with your training and I intend to do so. I should be able to put you through the most effective training possible now that you got the Kyuubi sealed inside you. And you will call me sensei."

"I would really appreciate your help Fu-sensei."

"Anyway I will let you continue your bath now. See you later!"

"Goodbye Fu!"

'**So that's it huh**.'

'What do you mean Kyuubi-san?'

'**Well she seemed to be bit too forgiving for you trying to kill Naruto. I guess she is planning to get her revenge by putting you through hell in your training. Heh not that I mind, my container has to** **be strong, so I approve of whatever she has planned**.'

Hinata winced a bit but promised herself that she would endure the training or punishment rather and become the girls friend.

* * *

After Hinata had finished her bath, got dressed again and finished the rest of her morning routine, Naruto appeared and teleported her back to the camp. He led her to a storage tent where they got new clothes for her, now that she was no longer working for the leaf village. She picked black anbu style pants and a dark grey anbu jacket with Naruto's orange fox head symbol on its back. She completely got rid of her hitai-ate, throwing away everything associating her with Konoha.

"You have quite a bit of ninja equipment here. I guess you already made plans for starting your own village?"

"Heh even better. Let me show you."

He led her to a big seal in one corner of the camp.

"This is a seal I developed myself. It works on the same principles as the Hiraishin. But while the Hiraishin only works for myself and whatever I carry, these seals can transport multiple people or bulky stuff. Even better is that while my clones get destroyed when trying to use the Hiraishin, they can contribute the chakra necessary to the seals, meaning I don't need to be present for the teleportation. Unfortunately it requires the same seal at both the start as well as the end location."

"This is amazing Naruto-kun. Have you taught this technique to anyone, like Fu?"

He shook his head. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to teach her. I fear that some part of it is some kind of genetic requirement or a bloodline."

"How far does it go?"

"Well the maximum range for the Hiraishin and the smaller teleportation seal is about three kilometers. I am actually not sure if there is a distance limit for the big seals, like this one. Anyway step in."

After they stood in the middle of the big seal Naruto went through a few hand seals. In an instant the scenery changed, the army camp was gone and instead they stood just outside of a small village.

On a field nearby about thirty children were practising advanced chakra control techniques, ninjutsu and taijutsu with one of Naruto's paths and several shadow clones. On another field several other kids were instructed in sword techniques by a bunch of samurai.

"Heh as you can see, I started gathering a bunch of promising students and training them almost immediately after becoming warlord. Most of them are either orphans or from one of the existing ninja clans who joined me."

"Ano what about the samurai?"

"Well you know the samurai arts are more common in this parts than the ninja ones. The experienced samurai can do really interesting things by channeling chakra through their swords. Anyway I was thinking about trying to teach some outstanding students both arts. Even with the sword in the way they could still do one handed hand signs."

Hinata nodded, it was an interesting idea but not many people would be able to learn both very different principles of chakra manipulation.

"Ano Naruto have you taught them anything else but the practical taijutsu and ninjutsu skills?"

Naruto grinned apologetically and grabbed the back of his head. "Um no? I mean Iruka's stupid lessons were just boring and didn't help. And I try to teach them genjutsu, but since I can't do it it's kind of difficult."

"Naruto they need to be taught how to plan missions, to act in a team, lead a squad, calculate success changes, formulate battle tactics or long time strategies and how to handle difficult situations. And have you taught them survival skills? They will need to know how to seek or build a shelter, what plants are edible, how to track enemies and prey and they need to learn how to be stealthy. If they don't have those skills when starting missions they will most likely die."

Naruto's face fell "Dammit I really wanted to avoid putting them through that."

"Well maybe you can try to teach many of those things in a practical way? Like surviving in the wild for a while under controlled circumstances. Or having them plan and execute mission like stuff. I don't know, like your old pranks maybe?"

Naruto hugged her. "Hinata you are a genius!"

Hinata went beet red. "Um Naruto but they need to learn discipline, too."

"Dammit!"

They made their way over to the group of ninja aspirants.

"Morning kids."

"Good morning Naruto sensei."

"I want you to meet Hinata, she is a good friend of mine and will most likely help me with your training in the future."

They greeted Hinata and they told her about their training for a while and how they had come to train under Naruto.

Finally Naruto stepped forward "I am sorry but we have to go now and I will need to steal my alter ego here from you. I will give you a bunch more shadow clones for practise though."

He dispelled his path and quickly collected the chakra metal and sealed it away. Naruto then created a couple hundred shadow clones for them to train with. He and Hinata said goodbye to the children and they returned to the village.

"Why did you dispel your path and return your eyes to normal? Do they require too much chakra?"

Naruto shook his head. "The reason is that I need to get to Suna and I don't want anyone to know about my powers yet. The chunin exams are being held there and Gaara has organized a meeting with the kages and daimyos of the elemental nations, where I can state my intentions. Well of course he didn't include Tsunade and the fire daimyo because they might make negotiations difficult but I guess I'll run into them there. Anyway wanna come with me?"

Hinata smiled and immediately agreed, thoughts about a week long trip alone with Naruto sprouting in her head.

"Alright then step in." They had reached the big teleportation seal again and entered it.

There was bright flash in front of Hinata's eyes and the landscape had changed completely.

The air had become extremely dry and and midday sun shone down mercilessly. Heat was radiating off the dusty streets which were surrounded by tall buildings made of sand stone. They were in suna.

"Naruto-kun this is amazing! What is the distance between Suna and your little ninja village?"

"Uhm I don't know. Anyway let's find Gaara!"

* * *

After a short talk with the Kazekage they decided to wander around a bit until it was time for the meeting with the kages. Still in the Kazekage residence they met Shikamaru, who beckoned them into an empty room. After putting sound and other protection seals up they began to talk.

"Hello Shikamaru-san."

"Naruto, Hinata it's really good to see you. I am glad you are both alright."

"Hey Shikamaru. I guess I get you to thank for providing me with food while I was hiding out in Konoha."

"Nah I had anbu following me for quite a while after your escape. I had Shino do it."

"Alright then I still need to thank him." Suddenly realization dawned on him and he grabbed Shikamaru by the throat.

"Wait a second! You could have sent me a message about what happened to Hinata! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry Naruto but Shino and I decided this together, you would have only gotten yourself captured or killed."

Hinata grabbed Naruto's arm holding Shikamaru. "I-I think he is right Naruto."

Naruto let Shikamaru go. Perhaps he did have a point, but that didn't prevent Naruto from being angry about the situation.

"In any case I am glad that you are alright, Hinata. My father, along with his friends on the council tried to make the hokage pardon you, but they were overruled."

Hinata nodded.

"What about her family? Aren't they Konoha's most powerful and influential ninja clan at the moment? Couldn't they do something?"

Hinata went a bit paler, looked to the ground and spoke very quietly. "Naruto my father was the one who put the caged bird seal on me."

"...ooh. I'm so sorry hinata." He put his arms around Hinata to give her a hug.

Shikamaru was a bit intrigued "So if he put the caged bird seal on you, why don't you have it now?."

"Ano Naruto found a way to remove it."

"Then you should maybe put a headband on to pretend you still have it. You are bound to run into one of the others sooner or later and it might be beneficial if they think they can control you and blackmail Naruto."

"What? No way! I want to send a clear message that Danzo bastard that he should not mess with me."

"Misinformation is a powerful tool, Naruto."

Naruto took a glance at Hinata and noticed she was looking at him with pleading eyes, she obviously thought Shikamaru was right. Naruto let his head sink in defeat. "All right. All right."

"So judging from your appearance you are that hot shot new warlord in the west aren't you Naruto?"

"Yeah I won that title one year ago and we have made some progress until now. But it is still a long way to a unified west."

Shikamaru nodded, this was very good news, something he could possibly use for his plan.

"Anyway Shika what's new in the leaf?"

Shikamaru's face grew darker as he started to report.

"Sasuke was married to Sakura half a year ago after a bit of intervention from the council."

"Wow Sakura must have been really happy about that."

"Well Sasuke has grown very detached and obsessed with this training this last two years, even more than before. His loss against you at the valley of the end against you seems to be troubling him greatly. Well and apart from that Sakura is surely not happy about what the council decided a few weeks ago."

"What do you mean?"

"Well since Sasuke is the last of his clan in Konoha, he is eligible to be part of the clan restoration act, meaning he is to take multiple wives. But Sasuke strictly refused to be paired with civilians or elder women. So the wise council decided to marry him to Ino and Tenten, since they are the only remaining 'acceptable' kunoichi in our age group."

Hinata and Naruto gaped. "Wait! What? Did they agree to this?"

"No, both of them don't want to be married to him anymore."

"Then they shouldn't have to!"

Shikamaru nodded. "There is more. Danzo has reactivated his Root program. The program entails the training and conditioning of very young children and switching off their emotions. The clans are forced to send a part of their offspring into the program."

Naruto and Hinata stared at him, those were grave news.

"And then there is your old teacher."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Which one?"

"Master Jiraiya."

"What do you mean?"

"Over a year ago a new anbu appeared under Danzo's command. He soon made a name for himself since he is both powerful and intelligent. On a rather harsh mission he was accompanied by Shino, who reported to me that the man was forced to summon several toads to aid them. And he has white hair, even though it doesn't look anything like his old mane. "

"But him working directly for the village, quietly following orders... That doesn't sound anything like him."

"Exactly."

"Huh? … oh no!"

"If you think about it it makes sense really. Lady Tsunade and Master Jiraiya are possibly the two strongest and most influential ninja in the village and would be the first to directly oppose Danzo. So they were obvious targets for whatever he did."

"We have to stop this. Are you sure it is Danzo? And do you still not know anything about the method he uses?"

"I am reasonably sure that Danzo Shimura is the one controlling the Hokage, but the how is still a complete unknown. I would actually like Hinata to take a look with her Byakugan to see if she can find something out."

"I am sorry, but I currently can not use my Byakugan."

"Huh why?"

"Uh that's a secret."

Shikamaru shrugged, if they tried to keep something hidden, he wouldn't stop them. "Too bad. Well we have informed the fire daimyo about our suspicions and gave him what little proof we had about Danzo manipulating lady Tsunade. We tried to convince the daimyo to stop Danzo's actions and force him to release his grip on the power. But he is actually pleased with Danzo's approach because he thinks it will make his village stronger. So as you can see the overall situation is quite grim. To improve it I have thought of a plan to protect my own and our allied clans from Danzo's actions. Additionally it could destabilize Danzo's support on the council and probably turn the population against him. But most of all I hope this will change the daimyo's opinion. But I would need your help."

"This is stupid! We should do something finally and not talk about destabilizing or crap like that!"

"What do you want to do? Start a civil war? The streets would run red with blood and our allies are still outnumbered. Or do you want to go to the leaf with your own army? I can guarantee you in that case every single leaf ninja will stand against you.

"We need to free Tsunade baa-chan from his influence."

"Well about that: We had Ino try to enter her mind three weeks ago." He lowered his head. "She is still in a coma."

"Will she be all right?"

"Yeah we think whatever caused this will expire eventually. Currently though even her father can't help her. Anyway bottom line is we don't have a clue how to free the Hokage."

"Then we need to kill Danzo. With a little luck baachan and ero-sennin will be free once he is gone."

"I never thought you would ever use such tactics Naruto, or even actively try to kill anyone really."

Naruto's face darkened. "Well I learned the hard way that sometimes it is better to kill one enemy than allow him to hurt your allies."

"I hope you won't use that new course of action too freely. Temari is very thankful for what you did with Gaara, you know."

"I don't think you can compare Danzo to Gaara Shikamaru. Don't worry I will be very careful when picking my targets."

Shikamaru nodded "Well if you want to kill Danzo you should know that he has been very cautious over the last two years. He is almost always with lady Tsunade, protected by multiple jonin and his special anbu. I don't think you stand a chance."

"You have no idea what I can do Shikamaru."

Shikamaru sighed. "Fine, your best bet would be attacking them on their way back to the leaf. You should probably wait until they have crossed into fire country territory. And don't get yourself killed."

"Heh don't worry Shikamaru, that Danzo guy is as good as dead."

"Alright but please still listen to what I had planned. Think of it as a backup plan."

* * *

An hour later Naruto and Hinata entered the meeting room together with Gaara.

As their host Gaara was the first one to speak up "Honorable kages, daimyos of the elemental nations I'd like you to meet Naruto Uzumaki, warlord of the west."

After Naruto had introduced himself personally to the kages A, Mei and Ohnoki and the three Daimyos, he began to talk.

"My friend Gaara has informed me that many people in the elemental nations are somewhat apprehensive about the idea of a unified west. I am here to assure you that I have no intention of ever holding lands in the east. Furthermore I would like to sign non-aggression pacts with every one of you and be allowed to send my own genin teams to the elemental nations chunin exams in the future."

Mei spoke up. "I currently see no reason why we should refuse such a request. However we are short one kage and daimyo. Why is the leaf and the land of fire not present?"

"As you are probably aware I am a former leaf shinobi and currently listed as an A-class missing nin. While my promise to not hold any lands in the elemental nations of course applies to the land of fire as well, there will be no non-aggression pact with the leaf since I still have certain objectives in that village."

Everyone nodded, while there was peace within the east, the villages were certainly not against the idea of the other villages getting into trouble.

"But you must be aware that your friend Gaara, as you call him, will be forced to stand with the leaf should you take any action, since Suna and Konoha are allied." A didn't really think this would be the case. This whole meeting was far too well planned out for that. But he still wanted to know what cards they were holding.

"That is not the case." Gaara's voice was as monotone as ever. "Our treaty with Konoha has expired a few days ago. One of the main purposes of lady Tsunade's presence here is without a doubt the renewal of the alliance. But as things stand that will not happen."

Everyone nodded.

"One more thing." Naruto was a bit nervous, this was the deciding point. "My full name is Naruto

Uzumaki-Namikaze, but I assure you lord Tsuchikage that I hold no ill will against Iwa."

Ohnokis eyes went wide. Minato Namikaze was a war hero of Konoha in the third great shinobi war and hated enemy of Iwa.

"You are the son of the fourth Hokage?"

"Yes, however I am currently unable to back up that claim. But I am sure the Hokage will be more than ready to prove my parentage to you."

Ohnoki nodded, of course the leaf would try to turn him against Naruto. But after what Naruto had told them it seemed Ohnoki could just as well have the boy and his former village battle it out. A most interesting situation.

"Very well, I will accept the non-aggression pact."

Naruto was relieved, he had achieved what he wanted.

* * *

After the meeting was over Naruto decided they should watch the finals of the chunin exams. He and Hinata were making their way over to the arena when they ran into someone with pink hair.

"Sakura." It was none of Naruto's usual happy greetings, more of a statement.

"Hello Sakura-san." Somehow Hinata managed to put enough malice into her voice that Sakura shuddered slightly.

"Hello Naruto, Hinata" Her eyes narrowed.  
"Naruto you are an A-class missing nin. Give me one reason why I should not apprehend you."

Naruto shrugged. "The same reason why I am not allowed to pound some sense into you and whoever's with you. That diplomacy stuff. If I attack you here all the other kages will be pissed at me, same for you and everyone else from Konoha though."

"Who would grant an idiot like you diplomatic protection? "

Naruto groaned, Sakura was deliberately being a bitch.  
"Sakura you know Gaara and I have a history and we have been friends since back then. And for the record, I have control over a territory almost as big as fire country right now, so there is reason enough for me to have diplomatic protection."

Sakura scoffed, he held most likely some backwater country which would soon collapse under Narutos 'guidance'.

"Anyway Hinata why are you with the idiot? I heard you were on a long term mission."

"Well I was arrested because I helped Naruto escape and then was used to carry out suicide missions until I met Naruto again."

"You helped him? Don't you know what he is?"

"No, I don't. Why don't you tell me Sakura?"

"He is a monster Hinata. He is being controlled by the nine tailed fox."

"Funny that he seems so much more human than other people. If I had to choose whether to call him, Danzo or my father a monster, I would most definitely not choose Naruto-kun."

"Danzo is a great man."

"A great man? And you simply ignore that he has people marry who do not want to and that he steals little children from their families?"

"My mother told me that was necessary to ensure the leafs future and the strength of its future shinobi."

"Your mother told you? Wait a second! Did your mother tell you the part about the part about Naruto being a monster, too?" The usually quiet girl became uncharacteristically agitated.

Sakura was silent for a second.

"That's it isn't it? You just do and think what your mother tells you to. Sakura I thought you were a stupid bitch before, but you are just pathetic."

Naruto knew the situation was escalating quickly and tried to change the subject.

"Anyway I heard you are married to the teme now."

Sakura was still gaping at Hinata since she hadn't expected such an outburst from her, but as she registered Narutos words, she turned to him. "Stop calling him teme you baka." She almost hit him out of reflex but stopped just in time. She noticed that Hinata had already been ready to retaliate. She sighed and calmed down.

"Yes I am married to Sasuke and we are very happy together."

But Naruto knew Sakura enough to see that something was wrong.  
"Wait are you lying Sakura? Are you actually unhappy now that you are together with Sasuke?"

"What do you know you stupid idiot!" And she stormed off.

"Well that was unpleasant. Let's go to the arena Hinata and watch the finals."

* * *

They made their way into the great arena and onto the vip tribune, where the other kages were gathered, including Tsunade who was accompanied by Danzo.

"Hey baa-chan."

"Naruto I..."

"Tsunade let me talk to the boy."

Naruto immediately knew something was wrong. The old Tsunade would have had bloody vengeance for cutting her off. But this one acted like an obedient puppy and stepped behind Danzo.

"What have you done to her?"

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"She doesn't act like herself. You have changed her."

"I have only convinced her of my ways to strengthen the village and she respects me for them. Talking about respect, what do you think your father would say about you opposing his village?"

"I know he would be proud." The certainty with which he said this surprised Danzo a bit.

"Anyway " now he was addressing Hinata " I see you have found your target Ms Hyuuga. And that you failed to fulfill your mission."

"I could never hurt Naruto-kun."

"Very well but you will have to return to the leaf with me."

"Never. I'd rather die." Hinata glared at the old man but lost the staring contest and looked to the ground.

"You know that could be arranged very easily."

Naruto had a really hard time not to sprout a happy grin and tell Danzo to his face that he had already lost that advantage, but he had promised to keep the fact a secret.

"Hinata will not come with you."

"Do you care for her? Maybe you would make a trade for her safety then? Last time I checked you stole a lot of money from Konoha."

"I did not 'steal' it, it was mine to begin with. And you should know that I would be a very bad ruler if I gave up even a small portion of my funds in the middle of a great war. We could however negotiate once that is over."

"Very well Lord Namikaze, I look forward to doing business with you."

As they took their seats to watch the final matches of the chunin exam, Naruto was still thinking about Danzo.

'I will get him for sure.'

* * *

It was one day after the final of the chunin exams in suna. The main representatives from Konoha were heading home. They had crossed the border to fire country one hour ago. In the front were Kakashi and Guy, followed by Tsunade, who was flanked by Danzo and Sakura. Behind them were Shikamaru and two of Danzo's anbu.

Then everyone stopped. Blocking the road in front of them was one strangely metallic looking Naruto. He opened his mouth and a projectile flew out of it right at the Konoha group. The projectile hit the road right between where Kakashi and Gai had stood moments ago and exploded into a large fireball. But the two veterans had already moved out of the way and immediately rushed the figure. While Gai engaged the figure in taijutsu, only to be blocked by its metallic appendages, Kakashi kept his distance, used his sharingan to analyze their opponents abilities and and used several long range ninjutsu to attack him. But the path stood its ground.

Danzo became nervous. He immediately had quite a good idea what this was about. He began fiddling with the bindings around his right arm, starting to remove them.

From one side of the road a loud rumbling came out of the forest. Then they saw a giant monster made of earth and stone walking towards them, knocking down trees on the way. Tsunade and Sakura engaged it. While the earth elemental was usually really powerful and resilient, the women's super strength easily started chipping away at its limbs and the rest of its body. It was only a matter of time until it would fall.

Under Danzo's right sleeve something metallic was glittering and he was starting to open clasps on it.

From behind the group four Narutos appeared, all a Rasengan in hand. When Shikamaru noted that two of those headed towards him he quickly stopped them with a shadow bind jutsu. The other two engaged the anbu. Both Rasengans missed but they fought the anbu tooth and nail in a taijutsu and ninjutsu battle.

Danzo had finally undone the bindings, he didn't even bother with putting away the metal casing but immediately started hand signs. Several Kunai hit the ground in front of him. The first three attacks had been diversions but this one was the main attack. In a flash Naruto appeared before the old man, Rasengan in hand. Naruto could see that Danzo had just finished his hand signs but before he could do anything else the Rasengan was already tearing through flesh and bones. Naruto continued to push the blue orb forward until it destroyed Danzo's heart and finally all resistance stopped, the attack had pierced right through Danzo's body and Naruto's hand and arm were covered in warm blood. Danzo's body crumpled to the ground. Naruto was sure that there was no way for anyone to save him now but to be on the save side he pointed his other arm towards Tsunade and used his Deva path to fling her away full force, pushing her through several trees and out of sight. He hoped the woman was going to be ok. Then he teleported again, this time to get away from the remaining leaf shinobi. Half an hour later, after several teleportations, he was back in the western regions in safety.

A few days later Naruto learned that somehow Danzo Shimura had survived.


	7. Chapter 7: One day in Konoha

**One day in Konoha**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_One month after the failed assassination attempt _

It was a beautiful morning in fire country. The sun was shining and birds were singing, but the preta path clone didn't really care about any of that. He was created one week ago in Suna and had since then made his way towards Konoha, littered with a lot of chakra metal to allow him to operate a long distance away from Naruto. And now he had reached his target, Konoha was just two kilometers ahead. Going further would mean running into the village's outer defenses, but that would not be necessary. He took out a scroll from one of his pockets and unsealed a ton of sealing equipment. Then he created twenty shadow clones.

"Alright everyone, you know the plan. Get to work!"

* * *

_Later that day_

Things were quiet in the Konoha ninja bank and the single banker present didn't think this would change for the rest of the day. But then an average chunin entered the bank. He didn't even set foot into the security seals behind the entrance region but dropped a single Kunai on the floor before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Then in a flash a very familiar young man appeared along with a very familiar older man. A second later the young man vanished again before reappearing with another very familiar older man. This process repeated itself two more times. Then the now five present people made their way towards the counter. Naruto was in the front with the clan heads Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka and Shibi Aburame following close behind him.

"Hi there Mister!" With a big grin he unsealed one of his giant storage scrolls.

"These friends of mine would like to make a small withdrawal."

* * *

_Flashback: Talk with Shikamaru_

"Alright, tell us about this backup plan of yours."

"Well you see ... we want to leave Konoha."

"What? Why?"

"A bunch of reasons really: Since my father and his allies are out voted on every council session and thus were unable to prevent having several of our young stolen away, everyone felt more like a slave or pawn than a member of our village. While my father tried to gain support on the council against Danzo's and the Hokage's decisions, I tried to rally other people. But most people don't want to go against him. The civilians are absolutely unconcerned, since Danzo mostly uses children from the clans and orphans. And most of the shinobi are too focused on their ideas of duty and loyalty to do anything. So we don't really see another option."

"I really don't like this idea, it seems like you are giving up Konoha."

Shikamaru nodded "I know it's troublesome, but in a way we do. While I really hope this will help turn the daimyo against Danzo, another part of me is sure that nothing major will happen and we will just further deliver the village to Danzo's hands by removing many of the people who could stand against him from the village. But I just don't see any other viable option."

"Then I will just have to be successful in killing Danzo and this won't be necessary. By the way who did you mean with 'we'? Who is in on this? Your clan?"

"The Nara, Akimichi, Yamanaka and Aburame."

"Wait all of them? The whole clans?"

"Yes. The clans and some others, who are with us."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Well I hoped you could give everyone shelter."

Narutos eyes lit up and he nodded, he liked the plan a bit better after now.

"It's a long way but we would be relatively safe from Konoha. Our biggest problem is of course how to get everyone out of the village. I was thinking of a diversion, something along the lines of a giant fire maybe."

Naruto shook his head "Shikamaru that is actually the least of your problems."

"Huh?"

"Wait a second I'll show you." Naruto quickly unsealed some of his sealing equipment and drew two teleportation circles on the ground. Then he beckoned Shikamaru into one of them and after a few hand seals he appeared in the other one.

"These things have a range of three kilometers. My bigger seals would be able to take you from Konoha directly into the western regions, but I guess there is not enough room in your compounds to hide one of those."

"Then maybe you could use smaller seals in the compounds and a big seal outside of Konoha?"

"Yes! That could work!"

"Do you have enough chakra to pull off something like that? You would have to teleport about six hundred people after all."

"Easily. Shikamaru I am sure I would be able to move the whole village if needed."

"But we would still need to get you into Konoha, Naruto."

Hinata spoke up. "Naruto can't you just give Shikamaru some of your Hiraishin Kunai and he distributes them to everyone who wants to come with us? "

"Yes! That's a brilliant plan Hinata." He handed Shikamaru a scroll with several Hiraishin Kunai in it.

"Wait are you saying Naruto can use the Hiraishin? The Fourths... Your fathers technique!"

Naruto shrugged. "Yeah I first used it when getting away from Konoha."

Shikamaru's thoughts were racing. Now this operation seemed a whole lot easier.

"Shikamaru–san who are the 'others' you were talking about? Who besides the clans would be coming with us?"

"Tenten and her father for once. She was easy to convince, considering how strongly she is opposed to marry Sasuke. Anko has had a hard time since Naruto left the village, I guess it was because people were looking for another victim to take out their frustrations on. And then there are Teuchi and Ayame from the Ichiraku ramen stand."

Naruto was overjoyed, if they did this a lot of his old friends would come with him to the west. But he reminded himself, that this would not be necessary since he would just kill Danzo. Yes if he managed to do that everyone of them would be happier and able to stay in Leaf.

"What about Kiba-kun?" Hinata had actually first wanted to ask about Neji. But that would have been silly because they didn't really have a viable way to remove the cursed seal. She was certain that Kurama would get very angry if they tried to pass him around and use him as a means to remove cursed seals. And the whole process based on the fox's cooperation after all.

"Well there has been an internal struggle in the Inuzuka between supporters of Danzo and those opposing him. Kiba was actually of the opinion to support the Hokage and by that Danzo's actions. Since we weren't sure how things would go, we didn't even try to recruit him." Hinata looked clearly discouraged by this news.

"And Bushy-brows?"

"Well since Lee is so focused on his sensei Gai, we tried to include him in our plan several months ago to maybe take both of them with us. Unfortunately Gai began spouting how unyouthful it is to betray one's village. I had to restrain him with my shadow bind jutsu and luckily Ino was able to wipe his last hour of memories with a jutsu she learned."

Naruto sighed, they may be able to take a lot of their friends with them if it came to it, but many others would stay behind. He nearly didn't have the courage to ask the next question.  
"Iruka sensei?"

"Iruka clearly opposes Danzo, but he told me he didn't want to take any open action against the man. He rather wants to protect his students and teach them the will of fire, so that they don't become taken in by Danzo's teachings."

Naruto nodded, he could have figured it would be something like this.

"One more thing. If we do this we have to rescue the taken children from the root headquarters. By the way there are even two people there whom you know yourselves, even though they don't fit the normal age group for root recruits."

_End Flashback_

* * *

After they had emptied the four clan vaults, Naruto brought the clan heads back to their respective compounds to oversee the evacuation. After the others were home, Naruto teleported with Shikaku to the Nara compound, where Hinata was anxiously waiting. A few meters behind her was the small teleportation seal, which connected the Nara compound to the big teleportation seal outside of Konoha. There was a long line of people and their possessions and one group after another entered the seal and was sent away by some of Naruto's shadow clones operating it. Even more of Naruto's clones were transformed into Nara and were posing as them outside of the compound, doing their usual routines to avoid suspicion.

Immediately after Naruto and Shikaku had appeared, Hinata asked them: "Did everything work out?"

"Yeah we got everything. With all those empty vaults the ninja bank doesn't look as impressive anymore."  
He took the big storage scroll from his back and handed it to Shikaku.  
"Here Mr. Nara, you keep this for now."

The Nara accepted the scroll and went to help a few of his clansmen with moving a big chest onto the teleportation seal.

"Naruto can we please start the second phase already?"

"Hinata please calm down, we can't risk this when half of the clansmen are still inside Konoha and even then you have to keep a level head."

Hinata nodded, they had had discussions about this multiple times already after all. But she couldn't help being restless.

"Let's go meet Shikamaru, he has the best overview of our situation. But before that I need you to create a shadow clone for a special mission."

Hinata did as she was told and Naruto created a shadow clone, too. Then the two shadow clones henged into a random male and female Nara respectively and the Naruto clone led the Hinata clone out of the compound. The real Naruto grabbed Hinata and teleported them both to the big teleportation seal outside of Konoha.

There Shikamaru stood beside the designated entrance to the seal with a big bunch of papers containing a complete list of the refugees. Whenever a group made its way from one of the four small teleportation seals to the big one, he marked the respective people as present on his list.

"Hey Shikamaru. How are things?"

"Well we got about three quarters of our people into safety. You still need to pick up the Ichirakus and Tenten and her father from their respective homes and then we can start phase two."

"What about crazy snake lady?"

"Anko is already in the west, she simply strode into the Yamanaka compound and used the seal there. She wanted to get away from the village fast, it seemed. Luckily it doesn't look like she drew too much attention."

Naruto nodded "Alright, then I'll hurry with getting the others." And in a flash he was gone.

* * *

Naruto arrived in the back of Ichiraku's and was standing right in front of Ayame, who was rummaging in one of the suitcases standing around.

"Naruto!"

"Hi Ayame, long time no see."

She quickly gave Naruto a hug to greet her long gone friend.

"I know we don't have much time right now, but I figure you would be very interested in hearing this. I overheard how Lady Tsunade told Sakura that she was pregnant yesterday."

Naruto wasn't really sure what to what to think about this. After their last encounter he had wondered if Sakura shouldn't stop seeing Sasuke, if even she couldn't be happy around him anymore. But with her being pregnant now, things would get really difficult if Sasuke didn't change.

"I hope she will be fine after this. I am not sure Sasuke treats her right."

"Naruto since you were gone she has been talking badly about you basically non stop. You really shouldn't show her any sympathy."

Naruto shrugged. Whatever happened, he was basically incapable of resenting the girl.

"Anyway I'm glad we get away from this village. Can you believe many people actually celebrated when it was announced that you would be turned over to Danzo?"

Unfortunately Naruto had no problem imagining this to happen. He knew that despite everything he had done before his flight, most of the villagers still resented him.

"Heh at least their celebrations came to a sudden stop when your escape was made official."

Ayame called her father from the counter to the back of the ramen stand and after a short reunion between the blond and the old man, Naruto created two shadow clones to take their places and avoid suspicion. Then he transported both of them and their luggage in multiple jumps to the big teleportation seal.

After that Naruto teleported to the weapons shop, where Tenten and her father lived. Her father had closed the shop for the day, since they were taking everything in it with them and it was impossible to hide that fact from possible customers. Tenten only greeted Naruto briefly and then demanded to be taken away as fast as possible, to flee from the village, which tried to have her marry Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto complied and quickly teleported her outside of the village. Then he returned to get her father and their possessions. Transporting their luggage was easy enough, it was only one bag filled to brim with storage scrolls of all kinds of sizes. After Naruto reappeared with the man at the big teleportation seal, Tenten immediately dragged her father towards it.

Naruto rejoined Hinata and Shikamaru, his father Shikaku was with them.

"Wow she really hated the idea of staying in the village and marry the teme."

Shikamaru nodded.

"Yeah she was absolutely ecstatic when I first presented the plan to her."

Then his attention was drawn to one of the small teleportation seals, where Inoichi appeared, carrying a still unconscious Ino, with his wife next to them. They slowly made their way towards the big teleportation circle.

"With that the evacuation of the Nara and Yamanaka is complete. Only about fifteen Aburame and ten Akimichi still need to make their way through the seals and we haven't had word of any troubles."

"Does that mean we can finally go?"

"Yes Hinata, we'll rescue your sister now."  
Naruto was a bit concerned that the usually calm and collected girl was this agitated and he hoped that it wouldn't cause any problems.

"How is your chakra Naruto? You have been teleporting people all day and created a ton of shadow clones to pose as the missing clansmen after all."

"I have used up a bit more than half of my chakra so far. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Shikamaru nodded and handed his lists over to his father, before Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru stepped onto one of the now unused teleportation seals and Naruto brought them towards another seal outside of Konoha

* * *

A few minutes later they were observing the two Anbu guarding the great metal doors to the root headquarters, just outside of the village walls.

"I'll take care of them."

Hinata circled the anbu in the cover of the forest. She made a few hand signs and then rushed towards the first one. The anbu didn't react immediately and when he did, it was too late, Hinata had reached him and after one strike to the chest he crumpled to the ground dead.

Shikamaru was impressed. She had used a simple genjutsu to delay their reaction for just a few seconds and that was enough.

The second anbu tried to get away from Hinata but she was faster and in hand to hand combat a Hyuuga was absolutely deadly. A second juken strike to the heart later he was dead, too.

"Hinata is scary. What have you been teaching her?"

Naruto shook his head. "She has been with me for a month only. This is Danzo's training showing."

Shikamaru shuddered, he should have figured this much. With their Byakugan and ability to kill by touch only, the Hyuuga had the tools to be excellent assassins. But most of them were too obsessed with their ideas of honor to go down that path.

They joined Hinata in front of the great metal doors. Naruto created his six paths and planned to blast the doors open with his Deva path's gravitational powers. But Hinata beat him to it. She coated her body in demonic chakra and after a few punches the metal doors first bent and then burst open. Hinata let the chakra cloak dissipate and was breathing hard. Nevertheless she stormed into the complex only seconds after that. Shikamaru and Naruto stared after her.

"Troublesome. It seems by taking Hinata's sister, Danzo has unleashed a monster. And what kind of power was that anyway?"

Naruto only shrugged. Then both followed after the agitated girl.

Naruto left his protection path at the entrance to defend it against incoming Leaf shinobi. In the entrance hall lay the bodies of two more root anbu. Hinata was nowhere to be seen. Shikamaru stayed in the entrance hall and took out another list, he was to make sure they rescued all the taken children. Naruto left several shadow clones with him, who started drawing a new teleportation seal. He and his remaining paths fanned out into the complex.

* * *

Shiri Aburame was having another bad day. Their instructor was making her and her partner dodge Kunais again and she was sure that he loved seeing them run for life, bleed and scream. Logic dictated that they somehow had to escape, but there was never a chance to do that. Their instructor had used a specific seal again this morning, which cut her off from her hive mentally and made her quite helpless. She was sure that he loved seeing her at his mercy. Shiri realised too late that their instructor had now thrown six instead of only three Kunai and she was unable to dodge two of them. But then her partner intervened. He blocked one of the Kunai with his arm and his ninken, his little ninja dog, jumped and picked the other one out of the air with his snout. The boy drew the slightly blunted Kunai out of his arm and was now bleeding. Since their instructor had forbidden them from working together for this exercise, Shiri knew that he would punish the boy. Her partner had taken quite a lot of their instructors hellish punishment for quite some time now actually and often it was for defending her. This confused Shiri greatly, since the boys actions defied all logic.

Suddenly the door burst open and a young man with blond hair and strange eyes entered the room. Their instructor seemed very surprised about the sudden intrusion and that was his downfall. The blond rushed towards him and quickly shoved a blue ball of chakra into the evil man's chest and sent him flying. Then he turned to her.

"Shiri Aburame?"

She nodded.

"Hehe I knew it. Of course the sunglasses wearing one is an Aburame. Anyway I'm here for you. Your family is leaving Konoha and you're coming with us."

She nodded. She wasn't sure if her family was acting according to logic, but that didn't matter. She was just happy to get out of here.

"And who are you?"

"Kiro Inuzuka."

"Of course, the dog... I'm sorry kid, but your family is not going with us. Well if you want you can come, too. But you most likely you won't be able to return to Konoha and see your family for quite some time then."

The boy looked crestfallen, obviously unsure what to do. Either go with a complete stranger away from Konoha and your family or stay and most likely be subjugated to more of this hellish training in isolation from the rest of the village. Shiri knew that logic probably dictated for the boy to stay. He might be able to return to his family and friends once this was over and if he went chances were that the council would demand another child from his clan. But somehow Shiri didn't want him to stay. She extended an arm towards the boy. Kiro had been thinking hard before, but when he saw her gesture his face lit up and he gladly took her hand. He gave a determined nod towards their rescuer to signal that he would come with them and his ninken barked his approval.

* * *

Naruto was running through the halls of the root complex, searching for more of the children and for Hinata. He paid some attention to his shared vision with his paths, who had so far rescued ten children. He still couldn't comprehend how these people could put five year olds through such brutal training. Suddenly Naruto noticed the the feeling of demonic chakra in the air and immediately rushed into the direction it came from. Naruto took several wrong turns because the corridors sometimes went into directions he didn't expect and he lost some time because of that. He was worried by loud crashing sounds which rang through the complex, obviously originating from the same position as the demonic chakra.  
He finally arrived in a large hall where he saw five dead root anbu lying on the floor with horrible injuries and missing limbs. The large cement pillars in the room had been destroyed during the fight, which caused the ceiling in the middle of room to come crashing down. Naruto saw a young Hyuuga girl, most likely Hinatas sister, run away into the opposite direction from him into the chaos. She dodged through the waves of collapsing cement blocks before an especially large part of the collapsing ceiling shielded her from view.

Hinata was staring into the direction in which her sister had vanished. She only had some long scrapes on her arms and legs and was otherwise unharmed, but she looked completely exhausted. She was breathing hard, was looking very pale and she was even swaying slightly.

"Hinata are you alright?"

Now that he had gotten closer he could see the girl was shedding some tears. She let her head sink in defeat. "She doesn't want to come with us."

"Well we could still take her, these rocks won't stop us. Maybe she is being manipulated?"

Hinata just shook her head. "No Hanabi is doing this of her own free will." Now she looked at him determined. "I won't force her."

"Are you sure? Will you really be alright with that?"

"Yeah, please let's just get out of here."

Naruto nodded, grabbed Hinata and teleported them back to the entrance to Shikamaru.

"Have we found everyone Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru sent a worried glance towards Hinata but started to report.  
"Well you found all our clans children. Additionally you rescued nine orphans and one Inuzuka boy. I only thought Konohamaru Sarutobi would be here, too."

Naruto cursed, after what Shikamaru had told them he had expected to run into the Thirds grandson here somewhere, but somehow that hadn't happened "Uh Hinata, could you use the Byakugan to look for him and any other children we might have missed?"

"Yes, Kurama-san managed to unseal one of my eyes yesterday."

She shuddered slightly, her eye wasn't restored completely and still hurt a bit when she used it. And she definitely didn't look forward to the painful procedure of the fox unsealing her other eye.  
"Byakugan!"  
After scanning the complex for several minutes she came to a conclusion.  
"I'm sorry Naruto-kun but Konohamaru isn't here. Only my sister and a few older root members are remaining."

Shikamaru already had a theory. "Maybe Danzo puts him through special training somewhere? He is the son of the Third Hokage after all."

"Damn! Well alright let's get out of here then. There is nothing we can do." They all stepped onto the teleportation seal and Naruto started his hand signs.

"Dope!"

The call rang through the entrance hall. Naruto knew that voice.

"I'll be there in a second."

He stepped out of the teleportation circle and with a few hand seals he sent Hinata and Shikamaru away, before they could protest.

"Sasuke! How did you get in here?"

Gritting his teeth the Uchiha answered. "Your clone let me through the barrier."

Naruto could of course have seen this if he had paid any attention to the protection path's vision.  
'What was he thinking or rather what was I thinking. I am still in the middle of enemy territory. I need to make this quick.'  
"Anyway Sasuke, what have you been up to since I was forced to leave the village? "

"I trained to become strong enough beat you. What is up with your eyes dope?"

"Well I kind of lost one eye and found this cool replacement ones in one of Orochimaru's lairs."  
He was definitely not going to tell Sasuke that his eyes were basically an evolved sharingan.  
"Anyway I heard congratulations are in order. Sakura is pregnant."

Sasuke scoffed and shrugged.

"Sasuke she really cares about you. Don't do this to her."

"I don't care. My first goal is to kill Itachi. She is an inconvenience."

Naruto just shook his head. "Sasuke you don't have to be like this. You don't need to act like a total asshole to become strong."

"I am only with Sakura because it was one condition for Danzo to train me."

Naruto blinked. "Danzo trains you? Sasuke why are you so drawn to power hungry maniacs?"

"What do you mean?"

"Haven't you realized that he somehow manipulates Tsunade into doing his will? That was the reason why I had to leave Konoha. And that's just besides the facts that he steals little children from their parents to train them and wants to marry you to women, who do not want to marry you."

"All that doesn't matter, Danzo's training is much more effective than that of that lazy ass Kakashi."

"Listen Sasuke how about you come with me? Sakura too. We can be a team again and I and some friends of mine can teach you quite a bit. As I said you don't need to be an ass or turn to power hungry maniacs to become strong."

"I would never accept your help dope. I will always be superior to you and I will prove it. And that means any training from you or your friends would be pointless."

Naruto growled in frustration, now Sasuke was really pissing him off.

"So you will continue work for Danzo?"

"He is just a stepping stone for me to gain power, just like you. Fight me dope!"

"Sorry Sasuke, I am kind of exhausted and need to get out of here."

"You will fight me now Naruto!"  
And Sasuke stormed forward while making the necessary hand signs for the chidori.

Out of reflex Naruto used the powers of his Deva path and embedded the surprised Uchiha into the nearest wall. He could see immediately that Sasuke wouldn't recover anytime soon.

'Dammit! If he was this grumpy before, after I beat him in an hour long match at the valley of the end, I don't want to know what he'll be like after this.'

Then Naruto vanished in a flash.

* * *

He reappeared near Hinata and Shikamaru right next to the big teleportation seal. Shikamaru was looking through the lists his father had left him before using the seal. The girl captured Naruto in a quick hug.

"I'm glad you are alright."

"Heh as if Sasuke could touch me as things are now. Anyway Shika, how does it look? Did we get everyone out?"

"I can't really believe it, but we did it. Everyone except Konohamaru and Hanabi is accounted for."

"Well then let's leave Konoha behind us."

A minute later they were gone. Behind stayed only a few shadow clones, who were tasked to erase the seal and any other possible evidence.

* * *

_An hour later_

'Naruto' and 'Hinata' finally arrived at Ichiraku's ramen and took seats next to each other. They had roamed the streets for some time while chatting about random things and with 'Naruto's' carefree attitude the Hinata clone was really intrigued what this 'special mission' was all about.

"Hey Ayame! Hey old man Teuchi!"

'Ayame' and 'Teuchi' rolled their eyes, while 'Hinata' giggled at his antics. He was still looking like a Nara, but he certainly didn't act like one.

"Naruto what is this special mission? Why are we here?"

"Well you see there kind of is no special mission, I just needed to tell you something."

'Hinata' nodded, she had already figured this much and really wanted to know now why they had gone to Ichiraku ramen.

"You see a while back after my first real mission in wave country, I was thinking on how attached Sakura was to Sasuke. It was the first time that I actually thought I might not end up being with her. But that didn't really affect me that much because I thought once I was a famous ninja or Hokage already, I would find a girl for sure."

'Hinata' nodded, this sounded just like Naruto. His confidence was incredible and nothing could keep him depressed for long.

"Well you see I thought about how things would be once I was a famous ninja, how people would look up to me and that maybe I would even have my own little fan club just like Sasuke. But then I realized something. I know that some members of Sasuke's fan club had some strange ideas of Sasukes greatness, but had no idea what Sasuke himself was like. I didn't want to be with a girl who only thought of me as some kind of awesome ninja or hero, without knowing the real me. So I decided I would definitely take out the girl I liked to Ichiraku's at least once to show her that I, while awesome, am still Naruto Uzumaki, ramen lover and number one knucklehead ninja."

He chuckled and grabbed the back of his neck.

"I mean it's not like I needed to show you that, since you liked me before I became awesome in any way. But well it was promise, even though it was one only to myself."

Hinata's eyes went wide. She now knew where this was going and that brought her close to a mental breakdown.

"Well I know I probably should have taken you out somewhere else first and in person and not like this, transformed and just as shadow clones and I am really sorry for this. But we kind of didn't have the time before and this might be the last chance to ever take out anyone to Ichiraku's. Not that I mind, since I have already taken the girl I like here. Hinata I have been thinking about you ever since you rescued me from that interrogation cell. I realized how nice you are and how much I like you as a person. And this last month of training and working together has only confirmed that I really like being around you. What I want to say is ... Hinata will you be my girlfriend, please?"

'Hinata' had silently listened to 'Naruto' all the time. Over the course of his speech her eyes had first gone wide and later her face sprouted a fond smile. After the last words registered she quickly screamed out a "Yes!" before jumping 'Naruto' and capturing him in a long hug, which he gladly returned. They were still in this position when 'Teuchi' placed one giant bowl of ramen in front of the two, along with two pairs of chopsticks.

"Hehe this might be the last meal ever served here, so let's not let this go to waste and dig in."

'Hinata' was a bit disappointed but detached herself from 'Naruto' and sat down on her chair again. Then they both started to attack the big bowl of ramen. After they had eaten for a few minutes, 'Naruto' set his plan in motion. He grabbed the other end of the noodles held by 'Hinata's' chopsticks, led it to his mouth and began slurping it down, while 'Hinata' had the other end of the noodles in her mouth and stared at him. Then she followed after his example and began inhaling her part of the noodles, decreasing the distance between them quickly. When there was no more space between them, they gave each other several quick pecks on the lips before Naruto bit off the noodles and both of them quickly chewed down their half. Then Naruto captured Hinata in a full blown kiss. She tasted really exciting to him since she had just eaten ramen.

Two minutes later 'Naruto' and 'Hinata' dispelled from lack of hair. Then 'Teuchi' dispelled from hitting his own forehead too hard. 'Ayame' only rolled her eyes.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata were in a meeting with the clan heads and Naruto's captains. They were discussing their current situation and their future plans. Prior to the operation Naruto had drawn an extra large protection seal around the war camp, which was now filled to the edges with dozens of large tents housing the refugees. Naruto hoped that he would be able to provide them with a permanent shelter soon. If everything went according to plan that would even be possible within a week.

Suddenly Naruto became beet red and Hinata simply fell over, having fainted. Naruto created a shadow clone and picked up the unconscious girl. Then he gave the others an apologetic grin and rubbed the back his head.

"I am really sorry but something important has come up. I'll leave this shadow clone to take over for me."

He simply went out of the tent without waiting for a reply, carrying Hinata.

* * *

_In the evening of the same day_

Kakashi Hatake, elite jounin, arrived at his regular place to eat.

"Hello Ayame. One miso please."

He wasn't exactly sure why he had taken to going to Naruto's old favorite place. Maybe it was because he wanted to convince the girl that it was justified, what they had done and wanted to do to Naruto. But maybe the real reason was that he needed to convince himself of that fact.

The girl glared at him like always, but started preparing the ramen anyway. When she was done, she handed him the bowl with a strange glint in her eyes. Kakashi was alert immediately. He sniffed the noodles to check for poison and after that didn't produce anything, he used a special tincture on a small drop of the ramen broth, which would turn red if it contained poison. It didn't. He shrugged, he thought he had just been paranoid.

So he dug in and swallowed a big amount of noodles at once and immediately regretted his decision. Something very spicy had been mixed into the ramen and Kakashi was rolling on the floor clutching his burning mouth. And he heard laughter, somehow familiar sounding one at that.

"Kakashi-sensei you always fall for the simplest pranks."

Kakashi froze, the hellfire burning in his mouth and throat forgotten. He got up and stared at the 'girl'.

"Naruto?"

A puff of smoke later Naruto was standing in front of him.

"What are you doing here? I will have to arrest you now."

"I am just a shadow clone 'sensei'." This time Naruto had made sure to put as much hate into the honorific as he could muster. "And I needed to get some people out of this village."

Kakashi stared at him. The Ichirakus had fled the village, this much was clear.

"This time they will catch you Naruto. You won't be able to escape like last time, however you did it."

"But sensei you already saw how I escaped last time."

Kakashi had seen something which disturbed him greatly during the assassination attempt, but hadn't been able to believe his own eyes.

"Hiraishin."

"Yes, my fathers technique."

"You are lying. You really are one with the fox. Evil trickster!"

Naruto shrugged. Somehow he didn't mind Kakashi hating him. He had been devastated at first, but after the beating the man had given him, Naruto was not keen on making up with him.

"I don't care what you think, but I can say that you are a bad ninja if you are unable to look underneath the underneath enough to see something as simple and clear as that. But I really want to know: what happened after I attacked Danzo? How did the bastard survive?"

"Stop insulting an honorable village elder. And Danzo reappeared out of thin air, a few seconds after his 'corpse' had vanished. You must have been under a genjutsu."

"No I definitely felt the guys chakra while pushing my Rasengan through him. No genjutsu can imitate that. And you saying he reappeared out of thin air means you were under this 'genjutsu' too, even though you had your Sharingan active. This is really strange. By the way that 'honorable village elder' is brainwashing the Hokage somehow."

Kakashi was taken aback. The boy had matured mentally, analyzing the situation so well. He was wondering if there was any truth to Danzo manipulating the Hokage.

* * *

_One day later_

The council was discussing the consequences of the kidnapping of several children from the root training facilities when the door opened and a certain older banker entered the room.

"Honored council, Lady Hokage, I am sorry to intrude on your meeting but I have important news."

The council got a bit nervous since last time the mans news had been really unpleasant. The man sent a nervous glance towards the clan heads, specifically to the heads of four particular clans.

"I have to inform you that since yesterday, the Nara, Yamanaka, Akimichi and Aburame clans are no longer official clans of Konoha, since they extracted their clans fortunes and returned the ownership of their compounds to the village."

Everyone on the council turned towards the specific clan heads with questioning glances. The Nara clan head Shikaku spoke up.

"You really are a bunch of idiots. I mean I had hoped it would take some time for you to figure it out, to allow me to get everyone away from Konoha. But I never dreamed it would take you this long, let alone allow me to be here. Unfortunately we are all out of chakra or we would have tried to kill that Hokage manipulating asshole Danzo again. Well there's nothing we can do about that now. See ya!"

And then the four clan heads vanished in puffs of smoke.

* * *

_A while after the meeting_

Danzo Shimura was livid. After the failed assassination attempt he had prepared a list of demands for Naruto to agree to for the girls safety. He had been sure that he would be able to control the boys further actions through her. But now the boy had really pissed him off by stealing his newest soldiers and even four clans away. Danzo's retribution would have to be absolutely brutal. He prepared two sets of orders, one for the Hyuuga clan to activate the caged bird seal of the former heiress Hinata and the other was a mission for his loyal pawn Sai.

* * *

A week later Sai arrived in Iwa, his precious cargo well secured. After speaking to several officials he finally found himself in the office of the Tsuchikage. He bowed to the man. Normally Sai would anger everyone he met, just to gauge their reactions but he couldn't afford to do this here. This was an important diplomatic mission.

"Who are you and why did you need to see me? I was under the impression that the Leaf's embassador would be responsible for anything regarding the relations between our villages."

"Lord Tsuchikage, I am Sai and I was sent here by the Hokage to tell you an SS-ranked secret. We heard news that you recently formed a non-aggression pact with a certain warlord. The Hokage believes that this treaty was signed under false pretenses."

"What do you mean?"

"Naruto Uzumaki's full name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze. He is the son of Konoha's Yellow Flash, the Fourth Hokage."

"Can you back up this claim?"

"Of course." Smiling Sai took out a scroll from his pocket and handed it to one of the anbu standing next to him, who brought it towards the Tsuchikage.

"This is his birth certificate."

Ohnoki looked the document over. Everything was in order, the signet of the third Hokage verified its authenticity.

"Very well, I thank you for your services Sai. But I have one more question: Why now?"

"I beg your pardon Lord Tsuchikage?"

"I am sure the Leaf knew for some time about Naruto being the famed warlord of the west. So why act now exactly? Has he angered the Leaf?" Ohnoki had heard from spies that something had happened in the Leaf Village, but the reports were still vague and he wanted to know what the boy had done.

"Nothing has happened Lord Tsuchikage. We were simply concerned that you were tricked when making the treaty."

"You are lying. I know something happened, but just not what exactly. Tell me!"

"Naruto kidnapped multiple people from the Leaf Village, most of them civilians." This was no lie. Since the clans were basically large families, the amount of young children, retired shinobi and housewives in them was higher than the amount of active shinobi.

"He must have 'kidnapped' quite important people to provoke such a reaction from the Leaf. I mean this is information I wouldn't give up lightly."

Sai remained silent.

"Well I guess if that was all you had to say, we are finished now."

Sai smiled and nodded. "Lord Tsuchikage, if you would please return the document to my care. It holds quite a value for Konoha."

The old man shook his head. "I am sorry but I have to return this to its rightful owner."

Sai became nervous. "What do you mean?"

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze has the right to have this. It will make things much easier if he doesn't have to rely on the Leaf to prove his parentage when making a new treaty."

Sai didn't like what was happening, the mission was clearly a failure. But he just kept smiling. "The Hokage won't be happy about this."

Ohnoki shrugged, he didn't really mind pissing off Konoha, since he never overstepped the boundaries of their existing treaties.

After Sai had left Ohnoki contemplated the impact of what had happened. With a little luck the situation between Konoha and the warlord would escalate further after whatever the boy had done. Ohnoki congratulated himself for the decision to stay out of this and watch the things to come from the sidelines.

**A/N: Do shadow clones need air? Are they able to eat stuff? And even if they are capable of eating, wouldn't they leave the half digested food behind after dispersing? But let's just ignore those stupid details.**


	8. Chapter 8: New Home

**New Home**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

_One day after the clans escaped Konoha_

Naruto was standing in front of his captains, the clan heads, some of his troops and a lot of the refugees, including all of his present old friends and classmates and he loved it. Being the center of all attention was something he revelled in. Close behind him stood Hinata, being a bit nervous, after Naruto had dragged her onto the small podium.

"Everyone! I am really happy to stand before you all. When I first made my journey to the west, I was sure I would return to Konoha one day and be Hokage there. But now after everything that happened, the new friends I found here and the old ones that joined me, I am determined to make this place my home. Of course the tents you are all living in right now, won't do for much longer.

Just a few kilometers to the west from here lies the old capital of the long gone Western Empire. Constant fights about dominance over the city have left it in shambles. Right now it has been abandoned by all military powers, since it lies in the center between all three remaining factions in this war. That means taking the city is a risk, because our enemies are only waiting for one of the others to make a move on it. But this is a risk I am willing to take, because I know, that with all of you, we will easily be able to beat them back! We will use the location of the city to our advantage and finally unite the West again!"

All of Naruto's soldiers cheered at this.

"In the city we will be able to find a permanent shelter for everyone here and maybe a new home. I know that many of you hope to be able to return to the Leaf Village soon when Danzo is gone and I promise that I will do everything in my power to help rid Konoha of his dominance and enable you to return home. But I would welcome everyone who decides to stay here in these lands with me and help me unite and protect them."

There was a lot of cheering from all of his soldiers and appreciating murmurs and a few cheers from the refugees.

"There is one more thing we need to inform the refugees about, since they would find it out soon enough anyway."

Naruto looked towards Hinata, who was hiding her head between her shoulders, looking to the ground and shuffling her feet slightly, she was obviously unable to make the announcement herself. Naruto sighed.

"I am no longer the host of the nine tailed fox. Show them Hinata."  
Naruto stepped behind her and she became even more nervous than before.

Hinata started drawing on the fox's power and coated her body in a cloak of red demonic chakra. Suddenly the chakra seemed to take the form of a smiling fox head and all the refugees stared at her in a mix of awe and fear. Hinata let the cloak dissipate again and quickly hid behind Naruto from the stares. After a quick glance at the girl, who tried to get away from the attention, Naruto continued.

"We were hiding this fact in the elemental nations to protect Hinata from the Akatsuki. But here everyone knew about Fu and myself being jinchuuriki already and with the training we have Hinata do, she wouldn't be able to hide this fact anyway. Nevertheless I ask you to be extremely careful about telling these things to outsiders.

One more thing: Since my escape from Konoha I have been on good terms with the fox. I don't want you to suddenly think of him as a good guy, just know that some things were not under his control back when he attacked the leaf."

When Naruto stepped down from the podium he contemplated his position. The morale among the refugees was quite bad. This was to be expected, even though everyone agreed to the plan to leave the village, only a select few had been happy about it. It had been a necessity to protect the children of the clans, but it still was a move that conflicted heavily with the shinobi's sense of duty and they still saw the Leaf as their real home. Naruto once again swore to himself to free the Leaf to enable the clans to return. Even though he would of course prefer it if his friends stayed with him.

* * *

Something was irritating Shino. There was a certain smell in the air that drew him in and excited him. And he wasn't the only one affected, his hive was going absolutely crazy. It smelled like ...

'Hive-Queen!'

Even with his closeness to insects, this was a very strange thought for the Aburame. He knew quite well that such concepts didn't apply to humans. He followed the smell through the army camp to the point where it was really strong and someone was blocking his path. Standing before him was a girl, about his age, with green hair.

Shino leaned closer to her and sniffed, he was now sure the smell came from her.

The girl furrowed her brow and regarded him critically.

"You smell really good."

**Slap!**

And the girl stormed off, leaving Shino with a swelling cheek.

* * *

_Later that day_

Naruto was overlooking the once great city from a small part of the city walls. Most of the wall was still intact, but every few hundred meters there were big holes in it. With Naruto were a dozen of his most trusted ninja.

"Hinata can you scan the city and tell us what to expect?"

The girl nodded and activated her Byakugan.  
"I can't find any enemy soldiers or ninja, they must all have left the city. Most of the civilians have weapons in their homes, but I think it is to protect themselves from looters. There are several deserted barracks and buildings, that could have been clan compounds. They are mostly intact, but littered with traps. A lot of the exploding powder used in this regions is utilized in those, most likely because they don't know how to create explosion tags. Nevertheless there is so much of it, that those explosions could easily destroy the buildings and kill our Shinobi. We have to be very careful about that."

Naruto nodded. This was good news. He had wondered if his enemies might destroy any buildings he could use, but instead they had planned to thin out his numbers in addition to that. Unfortunately for them he was sure that his ninja were capable of disarming any trap there might be. Especially with help from a Hyuuga.  
"Alright Hinata, pick yourself five helpers and start disarming those traps. Kentaro, go back to the camp and order everyone to come here. We don't have to be worried about any attacks right now."

The captain nodded and immediately went on his way.

"Shikamaru and the rest of you are with me. We will find out if this place has still some kind of administration and start setting up our own."

* * *

_One day later_

Naruto had taken residence in the old town hall of the city. The building's roof needed repairs, there was no flowing water and there was a lot of dirt and debris, especially on the lower floors. But all of the other empty buildings had similar problems and the view from the mayor's office reminded him of the Hokage tower. Shikamaru was just making a report.

"The team disarming the traps has cleared most of the buildings and the explosives are being moved to a guarded building in the outskirts of the city. Our four clans have each claimed one of the abandoned compounds as their new homes. The buildings need a lot of work, but we will handle it. Your soldiers are stationed in one of the three barracks."

"That means we have still a lot of free space. I was thinking of ordering most of my spread out units here, because I would expect our enemies to attack here and even if they don't, this central position will enable us to react quickly."

"That could be a problem. There is hardly any food and winter is coming soon. It seems whoever held the city before didn't even leave enough to feed the civilians."

"I will handle that. I can obtain food from the other cities and villages I hold. Using my teleportation seals that will be no problem."

Shikamaru nodded. "Good then that is taken care of. As you ordered we sent scouts in both our enemies directions. The southern alliance is mobilizing and our scouts think they will be upon us in two weeks. They have the most territory and the biggest army at the moment, but their alliance is still kind of shaky."

"Yeah I have dealt with those kinds of enemies before, using our ninjas we should be able to pick them apart well enough. We can turn them against each other through misinformation and fake attacks. If possible I would prefer to prevent any larger battles and make many of those warlords take our side by diplomacy and, if anyone agrees to it, personal combat. To find ways to break them apart I will need a report on the clans active ninja's strengths, mission experiences and preferred team compositions."

"Yes, I can prepare that together with my father and the other clan heads."

"Good, if you could have that by tomorrow we can then begin to plan missions for the teams."

Shikamaru nodded. "Concerning the Northern Alliance there is very interesting news. Warlord Tokugawa Oza killed most of the other warlords in a coup last week and made the rest of them swear loyalty to him. He has claimed the title of Emperor. He will need a few months to organize his forces, but when he is done with that, he could be a formidable foe. And there are rumors that he has had ninja training."

"That sounds like we should deal with him now that he is weak. But I fear we would stretch ourselves too thin when fighting both of those factions at the same time."

"Troublesome, but I agree."

Hinata entered the room, looking really tired. "We are done. We have disarmed all the traps and secured the explosives."

She shuffled towards a free chair and slumped down in it.

"Great work Hinata!"

She gave him a tired smile and Shikamaru continued his report.

"Coming back to our situation here: Apart from food our main problems are that the hole littered city walls offer almost no protection and that there is no running water. I think we could fix the old water distribution system in a week or so if we concentrate almost all our attention to it, but the walls will take months of work."

"Alright I was trying to rejuvenate my chakra since spending almost all of it in Konoha, but I am good enough now. I will use my paths and shadow clones to get food here, draw a basic protection seal around the city and start fixing the walls. Maybe I could even spend some chakra to teleport one or two of my remaining Samurai units here. Can you have everyone available work on restoring the water distribution system and prepare your report on our ninja as we discussed?"

Shikamaru nodded "You said your paths and clones would do all those things. What are you up to?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned.

"Well you see..."

He activated his Rinnegan and with a flick from his hand he used his powers to pull Hinata from her chair into his lap. During the short flight, the startled girl let out a small "Eeep!".

Once Hinata was seated atop Naruto he put his arms around her and she blushed furiously.

"I was hoping to be able to spend some time with my girlfriend."

Shikamaru sighed. 'Damn, if I could have clones do all my work, I could go cloud watching all day.'

* * *

The afternoon sun was shining into a room with a single bed. On the bed lay a blond girl and there was a drip next to her, feeding her artificially. Suddenly the girls eyes shot open and she stared into the room. Then she grabbed her head and started screaming. One minute later Inoichi stormed into the room.

"Ino?! Girl are you alright?"

She was still grabbing her head with a pain filled expression on her face. "My head hurts."

Inoichi sat down besides her and Ino grabbed onto her father and buried her head into his chest. After a while she felt slightly better.

"Dad?"

"Yes princess?"

"Danzo used the Sharingan."

Under normal circumstances, this would have caused quite a reaction from the veteran shinobi. But right now he was just happy that his daughter was fine. He simply continued to hold her.

"There was one piercing red eye looking at me from inside Lady Tsunade's mind. And somehow it seemed to hold me in place, preventing me from doing anything …"

She stopped, something told her that she had been unconscious longer than a few hours, a lot longer.

"How long was I out?"

Her father sighed. "Too long. About two months."

The girl laid her head on his chest sideways and looked out of the window.

"Dad? Where are we?"

* * *

_Several days later_

Jinsuke Hideyako, messenger of warlord Meizu Odashi, was in a terrible position. He was chained to the wall in the dungeon of another warlord.

The two warlords were allies in the southern alliance, but Jinsuke had acted suspiciously when trying to avoid the soldiers of the local Warlord Hidegashi, while travelling through his domain. This fact had been reported to Hidegashi and after continuous observation had revealed that the messenger acted the same way all the way through Hidegashi's territory, he had finally decided to capture Jinsuke.

The door to Jinsuke's cell opened and in strode Hidegashi with one of his bodyguards and someone who looked like the very cliche of a jailer and torturer, with a black cloth mask covering his head and several tongs, knives and other torture instruments on his belt. The Warlord held up an unfolded letter with the broken seal of Jinsuke's Lord.

"Tell me everything you know about this and that asshole Odashi."

Jinsuke remained silent and let his head hang low. While he didn't act very defiant, he seemed unwilling to betray his Lord.

Hidegashi gestured to the torturer next to him. The man strode forward, grabbed one of Jinsuke's confined hands and broke one of his fingers. The torture continued for a while until the messenger finally broke down.

"Please stop! I'll tell you everything!"

His tormentor stepped away from him to allow him to start talking.

"My lord ordered me to deliver this letter and the others to a few of his allies. He told me this was a matter of absolute importance and that these letters were not to fall into foreign hands. I am only a lowly messenger, I do not know about my lord's plans, honorable warlord."

"Odashi gave you the letters himself?"

"Yes, Lord Hidegashi."

Hidegashi nodded, it was to be expected that the messenger didn't know the contents of the letters, but it was important to know that Meizu Odashi had sent them himself and that the whole thing wasn't just a setup. He decided to tell the messenger what this correspondence entailed.

"Your Lord plotted against his own allies and wanted to pull a similar stunt as happened in the northern alliance. He planned to kill me and many of the other warlords and divide the lands among his allies. He wanted to do that right before the attack on that Uzumaki upstart, when we least expected it."

Jinsuke had a look of shock on his face as he heard those things. This meant he was now in the hands of an enemy of his Lord and almost none of the warlords showed any mercy to their enemies subordinates.

Hidegashi nodded to his bodyguard, who drew his sword and rammed it into Jinsuke's chest. The messenger suddenly had an expression of absolute surprise and confusion on his face, but then the light left his eyes and he was dead.

Only a few hundred meters away from the warlord's castle Inoichi Yamanaka awoke. He shook off the terrible feelings of torture, being close to death and condemning a man to such a fate. His temporary teammates Shino and Anko were at his side immediately.

"Did you succeed?"

Inoichi nodded, still tired from his long time mind transfer jutsu.

"I think I played my part well, they didn't suspect a thing."

"Then those two warlords will be fighting each other soon."

The Aburame was quite pleased with the results of this mission. It was not honorable and Jinsuke had been an innocent messenger, he had just served the wrong man. But if they fought the alliance head on a whole lot more people would die, several ninja from Konoha included without a doubt. People like Jinsuke were unfortunate sacrifices to save a lot of lives. Most of all those of Naruto's men, of course.

"This was so boring and stupid. Why did I have to be on this stupid team again?"  
Anko wasn't quite as happy as the Shino. She had been itching for a fight.

"Anko-san your knowledge on how to fake that documents was invaluable, while my tracking abilities proved useful to find a suitable target. I think this team was selected well and our success is proof of that.

Anko scoffed but remained silent. The bug boy did have a point.

Inoichi spoke up: "Alright let's pack up and head home. Ino was only awake for one day when I had to leave and I need to see that she is doing well."

The clan head wondered for a brief second for how long he would call the still foreign city 'home' but then immediately started the preparations for their travel.

* * *

Hinata was just resting a bit, after she had trained water jutsu, her main elemental affinity, with a few clones for hours.

'**Vixen**?'

'Yes, Kurama-san?'

'**I'm bored**.'

This confused Hinata, she had talked with Naruto about the fox a lot and he never said anything about him needing to be entertained.  
'What did you do when you were bored, while being sealed inside of Naruto-kun?'

'**Well I either insulted him or made fun of him. And often he entertained me by just being the loudmouth idiot he is**.'

Hinata knew the fox well enough at this point to make out the hidden meaning.  
'You miss him?'

'**I never said that**!'

She sighed. 'I don't think I can be as entertaining as Naruto-kun. Maybe we could find something else for you to do?'

'**Heh you could let me out and allow me destroy a few cities**.'

Hinata actually liked the part about letting him out, having a bit of privacy from time to time was something she definitely missed. The destroying a few cities part wouldn't do of course.  
'Maybe we could find a way to let you out partially? Like I give you control over a shadow clone of mine?'

'**I like that idea. The seal is built upon the hosts will to hold me in check. Maybe you could focus on letting my mind through, while creating a shadow clone**?'

Hinata did as she was told and after a few tries instead of another Hinata there stood a red furred fox with nine tails. He was about waist-high and had only about as much chakra as a normal shadow clone, but Kurama was happy enough with being outside.

"**Hehe guess who's back everyone!**"

Hinata gave the fox a while to get accustomed to his new body before she put her fingers into a hand sign.  
"Kai!"

And the fox clone vanished.

'**What was that for**?'

'I am sorry Kurama-san but I needed to see what would happen with the clones memories, since it is made from both your and my chakra. I actually really like this. I know what your clone saw, heard, smelled and felt, but I can't remember what it was thinking.'

Kurama immediately understood why this was a good thing to Hinata. He wouldn't be able to do anything without her knowing it.

'**Damn! I guess you wouldn't let me out again if I decided to eat some people?**'

Hinata knew the fox was teasing her for the most part.  
'No!'

'**Oh well, at least I'll be able to stretch my legs a bit**.'

* * *

Fu was wandering through the streets of the old capital. She was really angry at herself because she had left her wallet at her temporary home and now she would have to get it before trying out that new ramen stand. After spending so much time together with Naruto, hearing him talk with glowing eyes about the food of the gods and developing a liking to the noodle dish herself, it was really annoying to delay tasting what Naruto called the "Best ramen in the world". As she was fuming to herself, she suddenly saw a familiar face.

"Hey creepy sunglasses guy!"

Shino had just returned from his mission and was on his way to the Aburame's new compound. He turned towards her, looking completely indifferent as always.

"How about you treat me for lunch for acting as strange as you did the other day?"

Shino thought about that. He knew that the girl was called Fu and that she was the host for the seven tailed beetle. He had also found out that randomly sniffing on girls was not considered socially acceptable, so he should apologize for doing that. It was probably not logical to get involved with a being, that if cut loose, would be able to level the whole city, but ...

"That seems acceptable."

* * *

Danzo's most reliable soldier had returned from his latest mission and they were discussing the events during the assassination attempt.

"From what you told me that must have been the Rinnegan."

"What does it do Jiraiya?"

"A couple of things. It was the ocular power of the Sage of the Six Paths after all and is considered to be the strongest dojutsu of all."

The white haired sage was about to continue but Danzo cut him off.

"Can you prepare a report with the details?"

"Of course."

"Good, we will need that knowledge. The boy will most likely be surrounded by enemies soon, when Sai finishes his mission and Iwa turns against him. But I want to be the one responsible for his death. What he did to Konoha is inexcusable."

"Very well. Shall I carry out the assassination myself then?"

Danzo thought about this. This was his strongest and most reliable man. But silent assassinations were not really his thing and Naruto was surrounded by a whole army and a lot of ninja. And there was a risk if Jiraiya fell into Naruto's hands.

"No, Sai will do it eventually, after the boy's little country has become a single war zone. I need you for something else."

Danzo stopped for a second, unsure if he did the right thing. But Naruto's actions had weakened the Leaf and the fire daimyo had been furious. He needed to mend the damage fast.

"I need you to start negotiations with an old accomplice of mine and friend of yours."

**A/N:**

**Well here is the update finally. I had most of the chapter done for some time, but was not really happy about some parts. Especially Naruto's speech.**


	9. Chapter 9: Battle

**Battle**

**Disclaimer : I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

It had been over three months since the clans arrived in the west when there was a small attack on Suna by just two people: Sasori of the Red Sands and Deidara. They obviously wanted to capture the host of the one tailed tanuki, Gaara. Unfortunately for the two Akatsuki members Narutos Preta Path was just in a meeting about their trade agreements with the Kazekage and they were driven off by the combined efforts of the two young men. There was some damage done to several buildings by Deidara's explosives and several sand shinobi were killed, most of them by a traitor among the Suna shinobi. But overall the Village Hidden in the Sand came out of the incident relatively unscathed.

A few days later someone else arrived in Suna and now Naruto was anxiously awaiting her arrival in his office. Through his shared vision Naruto saw how the Preta Path and his companion arrived in the small teleportation circle just outside his office. The Path teleported away again to return to Suna to continue negotiations and make sure that the Akatsuki hadn't returned. But the other person opened the doors to Naruto's office and stepped in.

"Shizune nee-san!"

Naruto flew at the woman and captured her in a hug. After they had greeted each other for the first time in years Shizune suddenly got quite a bit paler and pointed towards a human sized red fox with nine tails sleeping peacefully to the left of Naruto's desk.

"Naruto is that the Kyuubi?"

"Yeah, well at least a shadow clone controlled by him. Don't worry he is harmless."

"Harmless!? What do you think will happen if the other villagers know you have left him out, well in a way at least?"

"Oh they know. The first days he was out, he spent his time chasing terrified ninja through the streets. It was quite funny actually, they would run away from him until they were exhausted and then face him in total desperation, only to realize that they could best him easily."

"That means they hate him even more now?"

"Actually being able to 'kill' him quite often seems to have gotten rid of a lot the tension. They certainly don't like him, but they don't hate him as much as they used to."

Shizune nodded, she wondered if she would ever get used to seeing the fox run around seemingly free.

"How come you are here Shizune-nee, what happened?"

"Well you see I was travelling to find new medical methods to treat people under the influence of mind influencing jutsu. I knew something was wrong once Tsunade had you arrested, but no one listened to me, because she acted normally otherwise. She even allowed me to examine her and try to treat her, but there was nothing I could do with my medical jutsu. And she was opposed to being examined by a Yamanaka."

"I hope we can find a way to help her soon."

"Yes but to do that we need to find out what caused this in the first place. Lady Tsunade showed certain symptoms of having been under the influence of a Yamanaka mind transfer jutsu. But those only have a temporary effect, in fact none of the Yamanaka techniques permanently change the mind of their target."

"I guess the old hawk must have secretly recruited someone from that clan a while ago. Anyway we found out that Danzo used the Sharingan, thanks to Ino trying to enter Tsunade baa-chan's mind. He has one implanted into his right eye, that is usually covered by bandages. Shikamaru and his dad believe that it must be one of the eyes of one Shisui Uchiha, who was known for his ability to control people."

"Then that's how they did it! Lady Tsunade is too experienced to simply keep staring into a Sharingan eye. They must have surprised her with the mind transfer jutsu instead to make that happen."

Naruto nodded. "That is good news actually because it looks like it isn't as easy for Danzo to control someone as it seemed first. What are you going to do now Shizune-nee?"

She sighed. "Well I didn't have any luck in finding anything that could help Tsunade-sama and I don't know what Danzo would do if I return."

"Why don't you stay here with us until we have found a way to free Tsunade baa-chan? I could really use your help as the leader of my medical corps."

"Give me a while to think about that Naruto."

"Of course Shizune-nee."

A few days later the medic told Naruto that she had decided to stay and help improve his medic corps.

* * *

_Two weeks later_

It had been four months since the clans arrived in the west. The southern alliance, which had opposed Naruto, collapsed completely after Naruto's ninja had sown mistrust between its warlords. One after another each warlord was either 'convinced' to join Naruto or was disposed of in one way or another. Now all of the alliance's lands and the remaining soldiers were under Naruto's control. But the lands were still unsafe and riddled with countless bandit groups and there was still unrest in many regions, a lot of which was caused by Naruto's ninja missions themselves. And so Naruto had dispatched most of his regular troops to deal with those problems. But that meant only a fraction of Naruto's forces remained at the new capital and now the northern Warlord Tokugawa Oza was marching towards the city with his army and was expected to arrive in only two days.

As things stood Naruto would have to face the fifty thousand men strong army with only about ten thousand of his own soldiers. Since his scouts had reported the approaching army too late and his remaining units were very spread out among the country, it didn't make sense for Naruto to spend his now very valuable chakra on teleporting more soldiers to the capital. Luckily at least all of Naruto's ninja were available. Even though the numbers were this different, the morale among Narutos troops was not bad, because they knew that with the ninja clans and Naruto, Fu and Hinata especially, they had fighters that could easily handle a great amount of enemies.

Naruto was on a training field, trying to train for the upcoming battle, without actually using the chakra for the techniques, when he saw Hinata marching towards him.

"Naruto we need to talk."

Naruto blinked, Hinata was awfully serious. He nodded to signal her to say whatever she wanted to say.

"I talked with Shikamaru and I think he is right. We should fight this battle."

Naruto groaned. "Hinata as I told Shikamaru already, this won't be necessary. I am absolutely certain that I can overload the gravitational powers of my Rinnegan in a way that I can take out Oza's entire army. This may harm me somewhat, but I am tough and me getting hurt is surely better than hundreds or even thousands of my soldiers dying in battle."

"No Naruto it isn't, that is the point. You have avoided all larger battles. You never led more than a few hundred men into combat, nothing that could be called leading an army. If you want people to accept you as their leader and not just fear your power, you have to prove that you can do just that. If you want other nations to respect the might of your army and not see you as the single obstacle they have to overcome to conquer your nation, then you need to fight this battle. Otherwise your nation might be very short lived. And then you will have not saved anyone by doing this alone. Besides completely relying on that technique is a stupid risk in itself."

"Hinata all this time I have tried to shed as little blood as possible. And now you are trying to talk me into the one approach of the situation, which will most likely get more people killed than any other." He lowered his head a bit. "And I don't want to risk your life or that of my friends if I can help it."

Usually he didn't have such qualms, as he would always believe his friends to pull through. But the upcoming battle worried him more than he liked to admit. Especially since with him being the undisputed leader, everyone else's lives were in his hands.

"Naruto you will have to trust in us. There is no way that you can always protect us from danger, we are ninja after all." She smiled at him. "And believe me if I tell you that I will do anything to make sure neither of us dies in that battle, there is too much I have to live for."

Naruto smiled slightly and nodded.

"Let's talk with Shikamaru and the others about our strategy and try everything to minimize our losses. Maybe we can even find a way to capture as many of our enemies as we can and not kill them."

Somehow this managed to cheer Naruto up considerably. "Yes! You are right Hinata, we will make sure to save as many lives as possible!"

* * *

Naruto was standing among his army, atop a hill just one hour outside of the capital. They had decided to meet the enemy away from the city to protect it and its people from harm and because fighting from the city walls wouldn't really have helped them. Now they would be able to fight downhill, with the morning sun shining into their enemies eyes even. Naruto wondered if Oza was confident enough to attack them under this conditions, he hoped he would be. The plains in front of their hill were slowly being filled by Oza's approaching army. It was an impressive sight, the sheer amount of soldiers with their weapons, armor and banners glowing in the morning light.

Naruto let his gaze wander over his own, less impressive looking army. The bulk of his soldiers consisted of ten of his samurai battalions. Naruto had assigned his captains to lead the units. Behind the lines of samurai Naruto's ninja stood at the ready. The Nara clan had taken the left flank, while the Aburame covered the right. The center was going to be supported by the members of the Akimichi and Yamanaka clan.

They had developed several strategies to incapacitate a lot of enemies, but of course showing any hesitation beyond those plans would only endanger themselves. Casualties were inevitable.

Before Naruto stood Hinata, Fu, Anko, Shizune, the Sand Siblings and both generations of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation. The plan was that Temari would use her wind attacks to protect their men from projectiles, Gaara would both use his sand defensively and to trap a lot of enemies, Shizune and Anko would use bombs with sleeping gas they had developed to incapacitate groups of enemies and Ino, Shikamaru and Choji would try to immobilize and take control of Oza himself, to maybe end the battle prematurely. The rest of them would support Narutos units wherever needed.

To Naruto's relief they saw their enemies advancing towards them immediately after they had taken formation in front of the hill and they did not wait for a better chance to engage. He walked through the lines of his Samurai with four of his Paths and Hinata by his side. The Barrier and Healing Path stayed in the back, one to help protect his men from projectiles and jutsu and the other to support the medic corps.

When he was in front of his soldiers lines, Naruto turned around to face them.

"Everyone! After months of hard work we now have the chance to reach our dream. Only one battle and the West will finally be united again and there will be peace! I ask everyone of you to lend me your strength to reach that goal and I know that with your combined power we can not fail! For unity and peace!"

The call was repeated by all of Naruto's ten thousand soldiers, but the giant roar didn't impress Oza's men and they continued their advance.

When their first enemies were only a few hundred meters away Naruto went through a few hand signs and activated several explosive tags they had planted before the battle. The explosions destroyed the covers of several large holes Naruto had created beforehand using earth style. Dozens of enemies had the ground crumble under their feet, leaving them trapped in the several meter deep holes. Naruto decided to use deadly force now to try and soften the enemies onrush. He went through several hand signs again and blew multiple large fireballs at their enemies, each causing an explosion which killed or severely burned multiple enemies.

Then the sky darkened when thousands of arrows flew towards his men everywhere. He saw several purple barriers created by his Protection Path stop a large chunk of them and another part was blown away by a wind jutsu courtesy of Temari. Naruto did a wind jutsu of his own to stop another group of arrows that would have made it through otherwise. He then gave a signal and his ninja began using their own ranged weapons, raining death upon their enemies with Kunai and Shuriken. But that didn't stop them, the spearhead was only about a hundred meters away from Naruto's position now.

Naruto briefly glanced at Hinata and found her with her eyes closed. He knew exactly what she was doing.

* * *

_Hinatas mindscape_

Hinata appeared before the giant cage of the fox.

"**Hello Vixen**."

"Hello Kurama-san. I need your power, um please."

"**Yes but be careful, don't open the seal too far. Your body still can't handle as much of my chakra as I would like**."

She nodded, pulled up her shirt, then went through a few hand signs and had her fingertips glowing with blue chakra. The seal on her stomach appeared, she put her glowing fingers onto it and turned them by one eighth of a circle, opening the seal by the same amount. Hinata started to glow in a soft yellow light and she could feel a lot of the Kyuubi's chakra running through her system.

The fox grinned one of his toothy grins. "**Give them hell girl. Can you set me free too, please? I may not be able to do much with just the chakra of one shadow clone. But I would really like to rip out just a few throats.**"

Hinata shuddered inwardly. The fox definitely meant exactly what he said this time.

* * *

Hinata opened her eyes in the real world, quickly created a clone for Kurama and stormed right towards the incoming enemies. She used the fox's chakra to create additional limbs and use them, her Byakugan and her Gentle Fist style in combination to tear through the enemy lines. While it was hard enough to stand against a Hyuuga in close combat normally, it was a total nightmare against one who could create additional limbs that were able to stretch and bend very far. Hinata usually only needed a single touch to either incapacitate or kill an enemy.

At the same time Naruto was fighting as well, surrounded by his paths. So far he tried to conserve his chakra and he hardly used any techniques. He only fired off one more flame jutsu to deal with an especially pesky flock of enemies, but apart from that he used basic taijutsu. He risked a small glance towards Hinata and saw her weaving through the enemies lines in a spectacular fashion. Behind her followed the Kurama clone, watching out for any dangers to Hinata and for easy targets for himself. Steadily a large amount of enemies gathered around Hinata and Naruto, keen on taking them out.

Then Metal canisters were thrown into the fray by Narutos soldiers and there was a shout which Naruto identified to be the voice of Shizune. He quickly teleported towards Hinata, or rather the Hiraishin seal she was carrying, grabbed her and then teleported back behind his soldiers lines. Only seconds later the metal canisters burst open into large clouds of sleeping gas, covering the whole area in front of Naruto's center. Temari used a wind jutsu to blow the gas away from their men and towards their opponents, revealing hundreds of incapacitated enemies where the gas receded. Narutos Paths and the Kyuubi clone had been caught as well and could be seen lying among their enemies.

Naruto recreated his lost paths and used the safety behind the lines of his soldiers to take a look at the overall situation. On the right flank the Aburame were absolutely wrecking their enemies, their insects draining them of energy and leaving them unconscious.

The left flank was in more peril as the Nara could not really deal very well with a large amount of enemies, because they got exhausted quite fast if they used their techniques for taking out multiple opponents. Naruto sent Kankuro, Anko and the older Ino-Shika-Cho formation to support them. In the center things were still calm as a thick cloud of sleeping gas still divided Naruto's troops from the enemy. Behind their lines, a short distance away from Naruto, his Healing Path, Shizune and the rest of his medic corps were busy trying to save or patch up any wounded soldiers.

Again a volley of arrows filled the air and again it was stopped by the combined efforts of Temari and the Protection Path with a little help from Gaara's sand this time.

Suddenly a loud roar filled the air and out of the gas cloud stormed samurai clad in full body armor with masks on their faces, that were obviously able to filter out the harmful gas. Narutos frontline samurai were taken by surprise and a lot of them were immediately cut down. These soldiers were obviously part of Oza's elite forces, as they dealt with Naruto's forces frighteningly easily. Naruto immediately stormed back into battle upon seeing his forces in trouble. Hinata, Fu and Gaara followed close behind him.

The time for holding back was definitely over and Naruto's Elemental path created both a house high earth and an equally big fire elemental, which immediately started tearing through the enemies. His Asura path used rockets and turned his arms into blades to cut down his enemies. To Naruto's left Fu threw one lightning jutsu after another and took out one group of enemies at a time and to Naruto's right Gaara was burying enemies under waves of sand. But new hordes of enemies moved forward and the fight turned into a chaotic melee, with Naruto and his paths, Fu, Gaara and Hinata right in the middle of it. In addition to that the Akimichi were fighting among all that chaos using their super sized limbs and bodies and the Yamanaka turned enemies against their comrades.

Their opponents proved to be much stronger than before, some of them wore armor that was able to resist a few jutsu. Naruto even saw Gaara and Fu fight enemies, who were using ninja techniques.

Suddenly a man wearing black samurai armor appeared behind Hinata and quickly drove a sword through her back. When he drew back the blade a blood fountain sprayed out of Hinata's body and the girl collapsed. Naruto only stared.

'An invisibility jutsu that is able to fool the Byakugan!'

Then the man was attacked by Choji and Naruto immediately knew that this had to be Oza himself. Choji managed to drive the man back using his boulder jutsu right into one of the shadows of Shikamaru. The shadow user managed to hold the self proclaimed Emperor in place and a few seconds later the man's facial expression changed to happiness, signalling Naruto that Ino had taken control.

"I have him!"

But then Oza's face became that of terror and after he had let out a short scream and his facial expression suddenly changed back to an indifferent look. Naruto knew that Oza had taken control again. The man struggled and broke free surprisingly fast from Shikamaru's hold. Choji tried to grab him using his super sized arm but Oza quickly bridged the gap between them and would have sliced the boy in two, hadn't Naruto pulled back Choji using his Rinnegan's powers.

"Guys I'll take him, you help the others."

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was obviously not happy about this, but they knew that they were outmatched and so they went to support the other combatants against Oza's men. Oza himself turned towards Naruto.

"You are Naruto aren't you? The brat that is giving me oh so many problems."

"And you are Oza. You named yourself Emperor before you even controlled a third of the old empire."

"Tze that doesn't matter. By the way: was my intelligence correct and have I just killed your girl?"

"You did attack my girlfriend and you are going to pay for that."

"Heh bring it boy."

Naruto wanted to end this fast and so he used his Deva path to catapult Oza into the air. At least that was what should have happened, but instead yellow glowing lines lit up on Oza's armor, revealing a complex seal.

'Chakra absorbing armor... Dammit!'

Oza attacked him using his sword, but Naruto evaded it and started using earth jutsu on Oza, as he was sure that his armor couldn't absorb those. The self proclaimed Emperor was surprisingly agile, dodged many of Naruto's attacks and simply broke through others using incredible strength. But he was slowly driven back by Naruto's jutsu. Then he went through several one handed hand signs and Naruto was surprised when nothing happened.

They simply glared at each other before Naruto got the distinct feeling that something was very wrong. He immediately ordered one of his Paths to look in his direction and through the shared vision he saw that the Oza standing in front of him was not real and instead one was sneaking up on him from behind. Naruto realized that he was under the effect of a genjutsu.

He quickly created a Rasengan, turned around and drove it into the approaching enemy only to see him burst into clumps of rock and earth, this was an earth clone. Naruto put his hands into a hand sign.

"Kai!"

He felt the genjutsu fade and saw Oza standing quite a distance away going through dozens of hand signs incredibly fast.

'So many hand signs. Is that the jutsu he used on Hinata?'

"I win boy." And Oza started to turn invisible.

But then two tails made out of chakra grabbed Oza by his arms and held him in place and in the air, breaking the invisibility jutsu. Hinata was no longer glowing in a friendly yellow color, but now she was coated in much more demonic looking orange chakra. Her uniform was still red with blood where the sword had pierced her, but the wound was gone. Oza struggled to get free from the tails, but couldn't do it. His armor started to give off red heat as it was absorbing more and more of the demonic chakra.

Naruto decided to add fuel to the fire, created a rasengan and rammed it into Oza's chest armor. Being this close Naruto noticed that the armor was giving off more and more heat and Naruto kept putting chakra into his technique.

Oza started screaming as he was boiled inside of his own armor. When Naruto stopped his Rasengan and Hinata let go of the enemies leader, the armor had become so hot that it bent and a small pool of molten metal formed under Oza. The stench of seared flesh filled the air and Oza was without a doubt dead.

"Ugh maybe we overdid it there."

Naruto looked around. His men had already been winning before, but now after the death of their leader more and more of Oza's men started to flee. Victory was certain now. When he turned his attention back to Hinata he saw that the girl was running towards him.

"We won!"

Naruto caught Hinata, who had jumped him, whirled her around and then pulled her close. But when he had his hand on Hinatas back he felt something sticky. It was of course blood from the wound she had only a short while ago.

"Are you alright Hinata?"

"Yes, thanks to Kurama-san. I am just a bit tired."

Naruto nodded, being the host for the demon fox did have its benefits.

"Naruto-kun how are the others?"

"Well Shino seems to have gotten himself quite a stab wound, but he'll make it. Apart from that my Paths only noted minor injuries among our friends."

Hinata gave him a short kiss on the lips. "I am glad to hear that."

"How about I take a day off, spend it with you only and we have a romantic dinner with no ramen to celebrate our victory?"

Hinata smiled and kissed his cheek. "Sounds good to me."

The Ino-Shika-Cho trio joined the two and Ino seemed in an incredibly good mood.

"You two lovebirds can do whatever you want tomorrow. But tonight we celebrate together!"

* * *

During the battle about six hundred of Naruto's samurai were killed and two of his captains. The casualties among the Konoha ninja were quite low, two members of the Nara clan died and five of the Akimichi. The Akimichi were hit the hardest simply because their members were close combat fighters.

Of the fifty thousand men of Oza's army four thousand were killed, thirty thousand were captured and the rest fled from the battle.

One week after the fighting it was announced that Naruto would be crowned as Emperor in three months.

* * *

In a damp and dark cellar in one of his bases, Orochimaru was sitting on the only chair in the room. He was covered in bandages from head to toe and he was very weak because his current body had once again outlived its usefulness. Kabuto entered the room with the white haired Toad Sage Jiraiya following close behind him. Jiraiya was blindfolded and his hands were tied with simple handcuffs with chakra restraining seals on them. Normal people might be completely subdued by these precautions, but with Jiraiya it was questionable if these things would be able to stop him even a little bit. After the door was closed behind Jiraiya, Kabuto even removed the blindfold from his eyes, increasing the uneasy feeling Orochimaru had even more.

"What is the meaning of this Kabuto?"

Kabuto had one of his creepy smiles on his face.

"Lord Jiraiya has come here on his own accord to talk."

Orochimaru looked at the old sage critically.

"What do you want Jiraiya?"

"I have come here to negotiate in the name of my good friend Danzo."

"Danzo? Why would you associate yourself with someone like him?"

"Danzo has persuaded me that my old methods to protect the Leaf and bring peace to the ninja world do not work. Now I follow him loyally."

It took Orochimaru a few seconds before his face suddenly lit up in glee, as he now understood what was going on with his old teammate.

"Kukuku what an interesting development. Tell me Jiraiya, has Danzo 'convinced' Tsunade of his methods, too?"

"Yes, he has."

"And what does your friend Danzo want from an enemy of the Leaf like myself?"

"He hopes that now that you have taken revenge on our old teacher, you could be persuaded to work for the Leaf again. He seeks your help for training the next generation of the village's ninjas."

"I may have killed Sarutobi-sensei but he still managed to take my arms from me. Tell me Jiraiya, why would I even consider helping you?"

"Danzo is convinced that you would be interested in a couple of things we can offer."

"Sasuke."

Jiraiya nodded. "Yes, but before that, we need the future of the Uchiha clan to be secured. Danzo asks you to wait about ten years, then he is yours."

"Tch, what else do you have to offer then?"

"For one we believe you would be really interested in what we have planned for you. Danzo wants you in charge of the Root training program. There you will be hidden away from the public and be able to work in peace. You have worked with peasants and the bloodlines of lesser villages before, we offer you access to the gene pool of Konoha."

"Interesting... I get full control over the program?"

"Yes. We need to be cautious when dealing with the trainees sent from the remaining mayor clans Hyuuga, Inuzuka and Sarutobi, because they might give us problems if they catch us overstepping certain boundaries with their people. But everyone else, including the many minor clans and other bloodline carriers are free game."

"Kukuku I could really use better lab rats for once. But unfortunately I will have to decline. I work for no one."

"Yes, that is why Danzo doesn't want you to just work for him. He offers you a partnership."

"I get a say in any important decisions?"

"That is the idea, as long as you don't betray us. Yours and Danzo's methods are quite similar, you would work well together. We would work on slowly rebuilding your reputation as well and with a little luck you may even be able to step into the light eventually. Well that would take years of work, but still."

"Hehe Jiraiya if this continues you will offer me to be the next Hokage. You know I dreamed about that position for years."

"I am sorry, but with your reputation that will never be possible."

"I guess Danzo will take that title once Tsunade steps down?"

"Yes."

"Very well, if Danzo is really serious about this offer I want to meet him to iron out the details. And if he tries anything stupid with those eyes I gave him, he will regret it."

Jiraiya nodded.

Orochimaru had a giant grin on his face. "By the way it has been very fun to watch you dance on your strings like a good little puppet, old friend."


	10. Chapter 10: Union

**Union**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Shikamaru entered Naruto's office with a grim look on his face.

"Damn it!"

"What is it Naruto?"

"I know that look. It's the same as when we talked about fighting out that battle. You want to convince me of something I find 'troublesome' as you would say, don't you?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Yes, two things actually."

"Two things?! Ah well just get it over with!"

"Do you know the ruins in the western part of the city?"

"Yes of course, that was the imperial palace once. But the place is completely destroyed. Why?"

"I want you to build a new palace. Maybe even bigger than the old one."

"What?! I don't need a palace! That would be a complete waste of time and resources."

"Naruto you need something that reminds the people of your power. Something that shows them what your empire is capable of. A palace would be perfect for that. Besides if this old town hall remains your seat of power, people might think your empire is poor and weak."

"Do you really think that is necessary?"

"Yes."

"Ah well alright. I'll ask Hinata about this and if she agrees with you we will plan this in more detail. But I'll definitely do most of the work myself with shadow clones. I don't want too much of our budget put into something, whichs sole purpose is to show off. What is the other thing?"

Shikamaru sighed shortly and took a deep breath. Naruto couldn't help but feel a strong sense of dread because of this display.

"Is your relationship with Hinata going well?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"Just answer the question Naruto."

Naruto viewed him critically but started anyway.

"Well Hinata is awesome! She is always nice and it is just fun spending time with her. I mean way back in the Leaf I thought she was kinda dark and wouldn't know how to let loose. But just last week for example we pranked the Akimichi by using Genjutsu in the snack sections of all convenience stores in the city. We feigned they had only low calorie products and Hinata and I had a lot of fun."

Shikamaru was horrified. "Naruto you will soon be Emperor. What do you believe people will think of you, if they find out you are a prankster."

"Heh Hinata did say something like that, but I kinda convinced her that it would be worth the risk."

Shikamaru only rolled his eyes and Naruto continued.

"I love to make her smile and laugh. She is still quite shy sometimes, but that really only makes her cuter.

It is a bit scary how well she knows me. I mean two times after I got bad news from our operations during the war I tried to simply put on a smile, to not bother her with that. Both times she immediately knew something was wrong.

And she seems to really like just being with me and talk. Well I might be doing most of the talking but still. I think no one ever paid me as much attention to me as she does. I mean back in the Leaf people often tended to completely ignore me. But now having someone to freely talk to and knowing they are genuinely interested feels really good."

Shikamaru nodded. In hindsight he and Naruto's other classmates could have been there more for Naruto and the fact that they had been kids and didn't know better, didn't completely excuse that.

"And well... You know when I tried to get Sakuras attention I always felt like in order to really get together with her I would somehow have to change how I act: be quieter, smarter and less impulsive. You know act more like Sasuke. But Hinata likes me just the way I am. No, she likes for who I am and that is absolutely awesome."

Naruto was silent for a short while and got more serious.

"I think I really love her."

"And she is your most important advisor. You trust her even more than me."

"Well yeah, I guess. Shikamaru just tell me what you want."

"Naruto I think you should marry Hinata on the day of your coronation and rule together with her as Emperor and Empress."

"What!? Shikamaru we have only been together for four months now. I really like Hinata, but I want to do this right and not rush into things. And this is a personal thing. How can you even think of suggesting something like this?"

"Naruto you will soon be the Emperor of a great nation. Everything you do reflects on the whole country."

"Fine! Fine. I get that. But why would I have to marry her this fast? I mean I am not entirely against it, but as I said I don't want to rush things."

"Several reasons actually. First of all you won't have any problems to name her Empress now. If she is crowned together with you, her influence and power will be undisputed. But if you wait people might not recognise her status as Empress because of her character and because of the fact that she is not real royalty. She is no longer the heiress of the Hyuuga and that wouldn't even matter here.

Furthermore if you wait people will try to influence your decision who to marry because of what advantages a certain match could bring. Other nations or groups within your empire might even pressure you into a marriage. If things take a turn for the worst we might eben become dependent on their help to the point you can't refuse."

"And marrying Hinata now would prevent that? "

"Yes that's how it works. Once you are married you should be safe from something like that."

Naruto nodded, being forced to marry someone he didn't know was something he wanted to avoid.

"There is the problem that a lot of people view your grasp on the power very critically or just flat out hate you. Especially the more traditional people. They don't like the fact that a foreigner is about to be crowned as Emperor. And many people are concerned because you are very very young for leading a nation. Being married would at least make you seem older and the traditionalists might be a bit more lenient when you are married.

Then there is the question what happens if you ever get sick, injured or, god forbid, killed. You might appoint a successor or representative, but considering the current overall state of your nation, I guess everything would fall apart again. The Warlords you forced into line will try to regain their independence or to become Emperor themselves. Having a direct replacement in the form of an Empress might prevent that."

"I don't know. I mean I don't want to marry her for these stupid reasons."

"Naruto, I don't want to force you and Hinata if you are not ready for it. I just thought we could maybe hasten things a bit, because I believe you will marry her eventually anyway. You know what kinds of promises come with marriage. Would you make those to Hinata?"

"I ... yes I would."

"Then I see no problem. You not only never go back on your word, but you only make promises when you really mean them, too. Hinata knows that as well, so don't worry about her thinking you would only marry her for ulterior motives."

"Shikamaru you know we decided to make my coronation completely public. Does that mean you want us to marry in front of the whole city? "

"It is troublesome, but yeah."

"Just great. And one of my captains told me I should be absolutely serious during the ceremony and look 'regal'. Dammit if we do this, this will probably be the most unromantic wedding ever. And I don't know if Hinata would be fine with marrying in front of the whole city or simply being Empress, considering her shyness."

"I think she would go through hell just to be with you, she'll manage."

Naruto sighed. "Dammit! I want to talk with Hinata about all of this, but I guess I have to propose first. Then we can discuss if we really want our wedding used to strengthen my position."

"If you need a romantic restaurant: I talked with Ino and she recommended..."

"Shikamaru shut up! I think you have messed with my and Hinata's personal life enough for one day. I might need to punch you if you make another suggestion."

Shikamaru remained silent and nodded.

"I need to think about all of this, I'll get some fresh air."

Naruto was about to go when he stopped with a solemn look on his face.

"Sometimes I think I am not smart enough to rule a nation, because I have to be convinced to do things all the time. Maybe you should be Emperor Shikamaru, you always know what to do."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru took a few seconds to gather his thoughts before he continued. "Naruto I think I would make a terrible Emperor. Everyone will look at the one in charge for guidance and as a role model. In me they would see a lazy guy, who is rather indifferent to their respective situation. You on the other hand always work hard and try to help everyone. You make an excellent example of how people should at least try to act. Additionally the Emperor needs to be able to motivate and lead an army. I may know tactics and strategies, but I wouldn't be able to rally people like you already did.

And it's not like you are a complete idiot who needs help at everything he does. Until now Hinata and I only had to convince you of things that were far from obvious. I think even without our help you would make a good enough Emperor."

Naruto's mood had significantly improved during Shikamaru's little speech and he was grinning now.

"And how good an Emperor am I with your help?"

Shikamaru just shrugged, a very slight smile showing on his otherwise indifferent looking face.

"Thanks a lot Shikamaru, I guess I needed that."

"One more thing. I believe that the final decision should not always be for the most logical option."

Naruto just stared at Shikamaru questioningly.

"Let's just assume there is another country next to yours and there have been dozens of wars between you in the past and because of that there is a lot of bad blood between you. For some years there has been an uneasy peace, but it is only a matter of time until fighting will break out again. But then a natural disaster hits that country hard, making it temporarily weak. What would you do?"

"I guess I would send them aid to try to improve the relations between our nations."

"You know the logical choice would be to simply attack, because it is really unsure if your good intentions would be well received from a long time enemy."

"But starting a war with reasoning like that is just wrong. Just think of what this would mean for all the people living there."

" Yeah exactly, sometimes the Emperor should do things not because they are logical but because they are the right thing to do. And I think you are perfect for that."

"I don't know Shikamaru, after all we did to win the unification war, I am not sure l would always do the right things."

"Naruto as a military leader there is no way you can save everyone. Sometimes you have to do things that are at least questionable. But there is a line you must not cross and I believe you are capable to discern when a course of action does that or not."

"I hope I can. Later Shikamaru!"

Only after Naruto had left his office, Shikamaru realized that he had not left a shadow clone or one of his paths as a replacement. He guessed this was Naruto's way of getting back at him. Shikamaru slumped down in Naruto's chair and tried to get some sleep before someone came in with a request.

* * *

_Two months later_

It was around midnight when Hinata arrived in a teleportation circle in River Country. One of Naruto's paths expected her. He had managed to find their targets after word of their location had reached Suna. The targets were two members of the Akatsuki, the organization which had hunted Naruto in the past and would without a doubt come after Hinata once they knew she had the Kyuubi inside of her.

Everyone from the West had agreed to take the initiative against the Akatsuki and they had decided to do it silently to not cause diplomatic problems with the local Daimyo. And to Naruto's discomfort the one best suited for silent assassinations was of course no other than Hinata.

Hinata left the clearing with the teleportation seal and made her way towards the small town, where her targets were located. Once she saw the lights of the settlement she activated her Byakugan. She found the two men easily, thanks to their distinctive robes and the fact they were the only ninja in the whole town.

While moving towards her targets she found herself unconsciously playing with the engagement ring on her finger. Naruto had proposed to her about two months ago and a part of her still wondered if all of this was a beautiful dream she would wake up from soon.

She knew things weren't perfect and that their wedding would be more of a display for the people rather than a family matter. But perfection was one of the things she had never associated with Naruto and these details couldn't sour her mood one bit. Naruto loved her and they were getting married next month. That was almost too good to be true.

She stopped on a roof a few buildings away from the small tavern, where her targets had taken residence. Now that she was getting a closer look, she saw that the chakra of one of the two men looked very strange. It had a sinister glow and seemed to permeate all of his body, not just his chakra pathways. Hinata decided to avoid him, but the other person looked like an ideal target.

* * *

Kakuzu was counting his money and Hidan occupied the restroom when there was a knock on the door.

"Get the fucking door Kakuzu!"

The Akatsuki sighed and made his way over to it. He pulled the door open and in front of him stood the female owner of the tavern. It was obvious that something was up, because they had been very clear about the fact that they didn't want to be bothered. He used his threads to quickly constrain the woman before she could say anything and suspended her in midair. His senses were sharp enough to immediately know that this was not the old lady from the tavern, but someone else under a henge. He tightened his threads and sure enough the transformation faltered, revealing a dark haired girl in an Anbu uniform, staring at him with pale eyes.

Kakuzu wasn't even interested which of the nations had sent an assassin after them, so he simply twisted her neck. The girl vanished in a puff of smoke. Then a noise from the window alerted him, he spun around and he saw the same girl storming right towards him. Before Kakuzu could do anything she hit him multiple times on his chest, with each hit stinging painfully, sending him to the ground. Kakuzu wanted to get up immediately to retaliate, but somehow he collapsed, his body feeling numb and cold. There was no way she could have destroyed his five hearts this fast, was there?

"Kakuzu what the fuck was that noise?"

But Kakuzu could not answer. He was dead.

* * *

Hinata made her way back to the teleportation seal and into the West. She desperately wanted a shower now. There was one thing that made her nervous: meeting Naruto tonight.

The reason for that was that Hinata Hyuuga was a pervert. No One really knew about that, because she was very shy at the same time and had been able to hide that little fact quite well. Hardly anyone knew that she used to outright stalk Naruto back in the Leaf Village and no one knew why exactly she used to faint in front of him all the time. The truth was that she simply had a very graphic imagination of things she could do with him.

But now after being around Naruto so often, she lost more and more of her shyness and she hadn't fainted for months. That meant it was getting harder and harder for Hinata to prevent herself from simply having her way with Naruto. But she tried to restrain herself, one because she didn't want to do something he was not ready for and two because her education and training as the Hyuuga heiress urged her to just wait the remaining time until their wedding. Especially since they had started to sleep together two weeks ago, simply to spend more time together and to snuggle, Hinata had a hard time not to just rip off Naruto's remaining clothes. Naruto himself was of course completely oblivious to her predicament.

Hinata stepped out of the shower. After drying up she put on a simple pajama, put a towel around her still slightly wet hair and left the room to head towards the bedroom she shared with Naruto. But right outside the bathroom she met Naruto and she immediately recognized that he was very excited.

"Hinata! You have to see this!"

Naruto started to undress and stripped down to his boxers in front of a starring Hinata.

"Isn't this amazing?"

Only now Hinata noted that Naruto had covered his skin with complex seals. They ran along his arms and legs and along his sides. Naruto turned around to show her that the seals from both his sides formed an especially complex pattern on his shoulder blades and both of those patterns were connected by smaller lines. Basically it was one seal which spanned over his whole body to the ends of both his arms and legs.

"U-uh w-what d-does it do N-Naruto-kun?"

In his excitement Naruto didn't realize that Hinatas stutter was back or that the girl was practically drooling.

"I call it Gravity Seal. It basically makes muscle movements harder, making it an excellent training tool. You could compare it to Lee's weights, but my seal has many advantages. You don't have to adjust your movements to the actual weight and my seal trains every muscle, not just those strained by the weights. And you can release it very easily for battle or adjust its power. I mean Lee will probably always have a slight edge in strength and speed, because he spends all his time developing those, but with this we might be able to catch up quite a bit." He flexed his arms to show how the seal reacted to that.

Hinata nodded, significantly dazed by the show Naruto was giving her. To distract herself Hinata activated her Byakugan to take a look at the seal with her bloodline. But that was a mistake. Through her Byakugan eyes Naruto looked like a god. His chakra glowed unnaturally bright as usual, but now his body was covered in the glowing lines of the seal in addition to that, accentuating every bit of his muscular body.

That was the final straw. Hinata grabbed the towel on her head and threw it away, to free her hair. Then she stepped towards Naruto while unbuttoning the front of her pajama, exposing her ample breasts.

"H-h-hinata?"

Hinata silenced him with a kiss, which led to so much more.

* * *

_One week later_

Sai and his two teammates arrived outside of Naruto's capital. It was four am in the morning and they expected only a few guards manning the patched walls.

Danzo had been quite unhappy when Sai informed him that Ohnoki had not only not declared war against Naruto but even delivered him his birth certificate. And a few weeks later when news about Naruto's victory reached the Leaf, Danzo immediately started preparing Sai's current mission. The assassination of Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze.

Sai signalled his men to stop right in front of the seal surrounding the whole city. He took a special grenade out of one of his pockets. It used the destruction of a chakra crystal to generate a field, which disrupted chakra. The rare crystal made this really expensive, but Danzo had allowed to use all means necessary and they wanted to avoid to compete with Naruto in the art of seals.

Sai placed the small explosive right next to the seal. After setting it off in a muffled 'plop' he and his teammates ran through the chakra induced smoke it generated and tried to hide themselves under the wall as best as they could.

They saw the light from one of the guards up on the wall, who had been alerted by the noise, first come closer and then stay above them for some time. After ten minutes of obviously not finding finding suspicious he continued his patrol.

When he was far enough away Sai attempted to climb the wall only to find it was impossible to stick to it with chakra. But luckily for them they had rope and a grappling hook with them and a short while later they were inside the city walls.

They were making their way towards the city's town hall, when approaching footsteps drove them to hide in a small alley. They had decided to avoid the rooftops because of possible sentries, but that left them trapped, because the alley was a dead end.

Sai took out paper and a brush and drew a mouse, before bringing it to life with his jutsu. The mouse exited the alley and it saw two men in their mid twenties dressed in guard uniforms. They were patrolling the streets and right now they were only a short distance away from the alley.

"So have you decided on a name already?"

"We don't know yet if it's going to be a boy or a girl. But if it's a girl I want to call her Ranmaru after my great grandmother."

"You know we should celebrate that tomorrow when we are off duty."

"I don't know. I want to be there for Nogiku as much as I can right now."

"Aw come on. You can do that when she's farther along. I'll tell the others and tomorrow we... "

He was cut off by the screech of a cat from the alley with Sai and his team. The cat had tried to get one of Sai's comrades to pet it and he shood it away a bit too forcefully.

"Is someone there?"

The two members of the night watch came closer to the dark alley. One of them pulled out a lamp.

Sai drew two snakes and brought them to life. The two men didn't notice the ink animals slipping out of the alley and then getting behind them. The snakes quickly slithered around their bodies to constrain them and around their mouths to muffle the screams of the surprised guards.

To not take any chances Sai slit their throats and then he and his companions hid the bodies in a trash can and moved along.

They made their way towards the town hall and stopped at its backside. Some windows on ground level were still illuminated, but the upper levels were completely dark. Sai climbed up to a window on the first floor and inspected the security measures. He was about to prepare another chakra disrupting charge, when suddenly a giant hand burst from the darkness behind the window and grasped him. Sai was unable to escape so he hoped his teammates could help him. But they were in trouble themselves. One was suddenly covered in insects, which had somehow managed to sneak up on them. And the other was attacked by six Narutos, who stormed out of the back door of the town hall. The Root soldier was quickly overpowered, then one of the Narutos used a technique, which seemed to drain his chakra, while the others held him in place. Sai's captor appeared in the destroyed window, revealing himself as Choji Akimichi. He jumped down on the street, next to Sai's comrades, without ever easing the grip on his captive.

* * *

_Flashback: Fifteen minutes earlier_

In the designated main watch room, located in the lower floor of the city hall, ten of Naruto's ninja and samurai were playing poker. In charge was an older Yamanaka, an uncle of Ino. He had lost quite a bit of his monthly wage when suddenly a small seal on the wall flared up in a bright red color. The ninja was immediately worried and for a moment there was an uneasy silence. There had been two false alarms of the other, bigger seal, which indicated when someone or something crossed the seal surrounding the city uninvited. The first time it had been a larger animal, which obviously ignored the small electrical shock the seal gave off as a deterrent, the other time it had been a drunken old man, who had gotten lost in the forest during the day for some reason.

But this other seal had not failed so far. Naruto installed it a lot later than the normal one and it was supposed to go off when someone messed with the big seal. The leader of the night watch took a brief look around the room and saw that everyone expected real trouble this time. He was sure that this had to be a small group of enemies or one of the guards on the wall would have raised an alarm. Without hesitation he activated one of the two emergency seals. Not the one alerting the whole city, but the more silent one.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata slept peacefully, the blond having his arms wrapped around Hinata's waist from behind, when they were awoken as a seal started to glow in a bright red on the ceiling of their bedroom. Hinata checked the surrounding city with her Byakugan, quickly found the intruders and informed Naruto about them. Five minutes later both were in their ninja gear and ready for combat.

* * *

In another room an emergency seal flared to life as well, waking up Shino. He quickly got dressed and hurried to the meeting point together with his father, whom he saw coming out of his parents room right as he passed it.

* * *

Shikamaru awoke when an annoyingly bright light flared to life in his room. After he had realized that the light came from the emergency seal he wondered what was going on. There were no explosions and no signs of battle to hear from the city. Since the West was completely under Naruto's control he immediately suspected Konoha, probably an assassination attempt on Naruto. But with everyone alerted by the seals he reckoned that a small group of assassins would not be able to do anything. Shikamaru covered his head and eyes with his pillow and went back to sleep.

_End flashback_

* * *

After Sai and his companions had been constrained, the street quickly filled with more and more ninja. Sai was put into chakra absorbing chains before Choji let him go. From inside the building came Hinata and the original Naruto to inspect their prisoners. Once Sai saw the girl he smiled at her.

"You should be dead."

Hinata ignored him and joined Naruto, who was excitedly inspecting their equipment.

Sai contemplated his position. He was captured and these people were far too experienced to allow him to escape again. The seal on his tongue prevented him from succumbing to basic torture, but this time the enemy had both a seal master to maybe break that seal and the Yamanaka clan to take a direct look at his mind. There was probably no way to protect the knowledge he had and as one of Danzo's most trusted soldiers he knew a lot of things. That meant it was his duty to protect this information at all costs and there was only one thing he could do. He sent a quick look to his companions and he was sure they had come to the same conclusion.

He could still move his mouth so he was able to angle his jaw in a way that he could bite down on a very specific tooth. The tooth cracked and Sai quickly swallowed the bitter poison mixture coming out of it, before any of his captors realized what was happening. For one minute he waited anxiously for what was about to happen.

Then he felt he was unable to breath. He gasped for air, but he could only draw in very short breaths. He would have suffocated miserably, if another part of the poison cocktail hadn't taken effect, bringing him blissful unconsciousness. The last thing Sai saw was Shizune, desperately trying to save him.

A few minutes later Shizune indicated towards Naruto that the third ninja had died as well. Naruto looked down on the corpses of the three would be assassins. He briefly wondered what could have been if Danzo had not started this whole mess by taking control of the Hokage. Maybe one of these dead men would be his friend by now? He shook himself from his thoughts and addressed all his present ninja.

"All right there will be an emergency meeting in half an hour. I want all of my captains, the clan heads and our part of the Konoha twelve there. And where the hell are Shikamaru and his father?"

* * *

It was the day of the coronation. Thousands of people gathered on the biggest plaza of the city to watch their new Emperor. Many had travelled hundreds of miles to get a look at their ruler, the one who had ended the century long bloodshed in such a short time. The fact that they would get an Empress, too, had been kept a secret.

At noon Naruto and Hinata made their way to the stage in the centre of the plaza hand in hand. Two rows of soldiers created a path for them to walk through undisturbed. All the way people cheered and waved. Hinata remained composed as they had been told. Naruto on the other hand couldn't stop himself from smiling and waving back sometimes. When they had climbed the stage an old monk started the wedding ceremony, ignoring the surprised murmurs from the crowd. Hinata and Naruto both said their vows before Shikamaru handed them their wedding rings. The old monk declared them to be husband and wife and Naruto and Hinata sealed the ceremony with a kiss.

Then the monk produced the 'crowns', two slim golden diadems or headbands rather. Naruto didn't like the idea of wearing an actual crown, but they had decided to use something for ceremonial purposes. Naruto and Hinata kneeled before the man, who declared them Emperor and Empress and put the diadems atop their heads. When the two stood up, the whole crowd kneeled to honor their new rulers.

After that the Lords of the provinces stepped forward, many of them were former Warlords Naruto had won over to fight for his cause. One after the other they swore their allegiance towards the Emperor and Empress. Naruto saw defiance in some of their faces and he knew that he would have to deal with a few of them to secure the unity of his nation.

Finally, to Naruto's and Hinata's surprise even, the four clan heads from Konoha made their way to the front. Just like the Lords each one of the clan heads swore their loyalty to the newlyweds. Their only request was, that when Konoha was liberated from Danzo, everybody who wanted to return was allowed to do so. Naruto and Hinata gladly accepted these conditions.

The rest of the day the people in streets celebrated as Naruto had provided them with lots of food and beverages to do so. Naruto and Hinata attended a more private celebration, but even there the presence of their allies from the Sand and other diplomatic representatives made it impossible to relax and really enjoy the occasion. So both of them were relieved when they could finally retire to start their wedding night.

Luckily for both their reputations nobody ever noticed that Hinata was pregnant since one month before the wedding.

**A/N: The renaming of the capital would have happened in the conversation with Shikamaru if I hadn't been too lazy to write it or if I had found a name I really liked. Sorry about that.**


	11. Chapter 11: Friend or foe

**Friend or foe**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

* * *

_Two years after Naruto and Hinata became Emperor and Empress_

Naruto awoke when the first rays of the morning sun shone through the windows of the imperial palace. He took a few minutes to just stare at the beautiful woman lying next to him, sleeping peacefully. He knew that Hinata could use a bit more rest. Even though the fox helped her quite a bit, he was still far more energetic than her thanks to his Senju bloodline and the continuous use of shadow clones took quite a bit out of her. He stood up and silently made his way to their childrens bedroom to check up on them. He had only opened the door a crack wide when there was a shout from inside.

"Daddy!"

A small girl with blue-black hair sprang up from her bed and waddled towards him as fast as she could. She almost fell once, but managed to regain her balance. When she reached his legs Naruto picked her up and put the giggling girl over his shoulder. Naruto took one more look inside the room, where he saw the girl's brother still sleeping. Naruto gently closed the door behind him and went to prepare breakfast.

Hinata had given birth to fraternal twins. The boy had blond hair, was a relatively quiet child and had Byakugan eyes like his mother. They decided to name him Minato after Naruto's father. The girl on the other hand had cerulean blue eyes and blue-black hair. Her name was Hitomi after Hinata's late mother. She was very energetic and Naruto suspected and later confirmed that she, like himself, carried the Senju bloodline. Both of the children had whisker marks, probably because of the Kyuubi inside of Hinata. Naruto and Hinata had been a bit surprised that their bloodlines didn't mix, but that didn't matter.

They loved their children very much and did most of the parenting themselves. Thanks to shadow clones and Naruto's paths they managed to find the time to care for their children, train, relax and rule their nation.

Naruto prepared breakfast with the help of their cook. They could have employed an army of servants to do everything for them, but Naruto and Hinata felt more comfortable with doing some things themselves. And they had been worried that getting pampered all the time might have a bad influence on their children.

After breakfast was ready Naruto tried to feed his daughter, who seemingly had other plans. Mirth shone in the girl's eyes as she kept her mouth shut and tried to flick food from the spoon her father was holding. Naruto steered his hand away from a right swing from his daughter only to to get too close to her left leg. With for a toddler amazing speed the girl kicked the slimy content of the spoon directly into Naruto's face. Hitomi giggled, while Naruto sighed and wiped his face clean with a conveniently placed cloth. Then Hinata entered the room, carrying Minato. She gave Naruto a quick peck on the lips and sat down right next to him with her son on her lap. She began feeding him like this without any trouble. Naruto sent a scolding look towards his daughter, who grinned back.

* * *

Naruto's Human Path sighed. He was draped in Naruto's official emperor's garb and on his way to the throne room. He had drawn the short end of the stick and was to listen to the requests of anyone seeking an audience. Naruto liked to rule, listen to people's request and help them whenever appropriate. But the problem was that to be taken seriously as a ruler he had to act the part. He couldn't get excited over interesting matters, joke around and he had to pretend to be interested in a lot of boring stuff. The Path took a look out of a window only to see at least a hundred people lined up in a queue in front of the palace gates. The queue mainly consisted of merchants who wanted to discuss trade routes or complain about taxes, commoners who wanted a ruling and rich people who only seemed to complain all the time. Really important matters were brought directly in front of the council, where another Path and his advisors were handling things. The Path entered the throne room and prepared himself mentally, this was going to be a long day.

* * *

Naruto and Hinata had made two more attempts to eliminate Danzo and free the Leaf. However they were still keen on avoiding to spill the blood of their former friends and comrades, which made their task quite difficult. Even more so because Danzo was getting increasingly cautious to the point where he hardly ever left the safety of the Hokage tower.

On the first attempt Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru made it to the base of the tower. There they were stopped by Kakashi and Gai. The two veterans managed to stall them until the three intruders were almost overrun by Leaf shinobi. Naruto was able to evacuate them in the last second using quick Hiraishin teleportations. Shikamaru would have lost an arm to Kakashi's Raikiri during that engagement if Naruto's Healing Path hadn't been able to save it.

On the second attempt they didn't even make it into the village. They hid a Hiraishin kunai between the wares of a traveling merchant going to Konoha. However the kunai was found and the merchant arrested right at the village gates. Shikamaru later suspected that the Konoha shinobi had found a way to easily locate Hiraishin seals. The traveling merchant never left Konoha again and after half a year they were sure that he was dead. The fact that they had sent an innocent civilian to his death didn't sit well with Naruto, but the only thing they could do was help the merchant's family financially. Because of that failure they stopped doing any further attempts for the time being.

In every other way things were going badly for Konoha. The village and Fire Country itself were driven more and more into isolation. Due to the reclusive behavior of Tsunade and Danzo and their absence from important meetings the village lost one ally after another as their treaties expired and Naruto's empire gained many of them for itself. In addition to that Naruto had established good relations with all the other Kages.

The Akatsuki had not been idle during that time either and they managed to capture almost all of the tailed beasts. There was even another attempt to abduct Gaara. Even though the Akatsuki managed to capture him this time, the quick response time from the West, thanks to Naruto's teleportation seals, led to their failure. During the rescue the Akatsuki Hidan was 'killed' and after she discovered his immortality dismembered by Fu. His body parts were buried in different regions of the empire later. Hidan's partner Deidara was forced to retreat, leaving behind his captive. Apart from Hinata, Gaara and Fu only the eight tails and its host Killer B remained safe from the missing nins.

* * *

At noon Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru made their way from the imperial palace into the city after they had left the twins in the care of one of Naruto's paths and a shadow clone from Hinata. When Naruto and his army first arrived in the city the streets had been empty and the citizens hiding in their homes. Now the streets were filled with life. In every street shops and small stands offered their wares, restaurants and small cafes offered food, drinks and a place to relax and children playing games were running through the and Hinata had put on a Henge to avoid getting everybody's attention since they were planning to get some free time and keep official business for this day to the bare minimum. Even though Naruto's clones and paths were a common sight and were mostly ignored by now, things were very different when somebody spotted the originals. And Naruto and Hinata walking together was a big tell for that being the case.

The trio stopped near a small square, where several of Naruto's clones were operating a teleportation seal. Naruto was of course unable to manage all transports through his Empire, but instantaneous teleportations were a profitable business for his treasury and it was especially sought after for valuable and perishable wares.

After a few minutes of waiting Ino and Choji arrived. The two were still active ninja even though the third position in their team was not firmly occupied, since Shikamaru was too busy with helping out run Naruto's and Hinata's nation most of the time. Shortly after Shino, Fu and Tenten arrived as well. Officially they were part of the regular ninja forces just like the others. Unofficially however they had become the elite of the Empire's newly founded ANBU under Hinata's personal command. While Hinata organized things from a distance, Tenten had established herself as her representative and mission leader for the most critical tasks. Shino and Fu had gained quite a reputation under their code names as well and even though it was odd and even discouraged to have a relationship while in this position, they had been together for a while now. The silent Aburame and the energetic young woman made an even stranger couple than Naruto and Hinata, but somehow it seemed to work out.

After everyone had greeted the others the transformed Naruto grinned at his friends.

"It's great that everybody could make it! Let's hope we can just have a good time for once and not get dragged into too much diplomatic stuff."

With that everyone made their way to the teleportation seal.

* * *

The chunin exams were being held in Iwa. It was the first time that one fresh genin team from the West would participate. The team members were children from the migrated Konoha clans though. It would be one more year until the first teams fully trained in the Empire were ready to take the exams.

Naruto had founded three ninja academies in the West. But the one located in the capital was by far the biggest and best staffed. The other two were mainly tasked with training basic level shinobi and finding talented children to be trained in the capital. In addition to ninja training each academy had classes for samurai as well.

Naruto and his friends made their way from the teleportation seal to the arena to watch the examination. In the front were Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji. Choji was consuming a bag of chips, while Shikamaru had brought up a certain Lord he suspected to plan to betray Naruto. Behind them walked Shino and Fu hand in hand, completely silent. And in the back Ino and Tenten were discussing Ino's latest relationship. Hinata was with them and she sometimes joined in on the conversation.

They rounded a corner and suddenly there was another group right in front of them. Opposite of Naruto stood Sasuke, with Kiba right next to him. Behind them were Sakura, Lee and Neji and in the back were Hanabi and the rest of her team, who were taking the Chunin exam this time. The two groups stared at each other.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well this is awkward. How have you been guys?"

"Traitors!" The shout came from Sasuke and Hanabi. Lee's face had lit up when he saw his old friends and probably wanted to start rambling about his still youthful friends. But the hateful shout from his allies shut him up.

Tenten positioned herself in front of Naruto's group and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"And what should we have done in your opinion? Stay in Konoha and be forced to marry Sasuke and watch as the clans children get taken away?"

There was a brief silence before Sakura remembered something important. "Naruto you idiot how could you let Hinata get killed? "

Just then Hinata made her way from the back to the front and Sakura stared at her open mouthed.

"H-Hinata?! We thought you were dead!"

Naruto answered instead "Nah, she was probably declared dead by Danzo after they activated her cursed seal, but as you can see she is fine. What did they tell you happened to her?"

Neji answered, eyeing Naruto critically.

"According to the official version Lady Hinata was killed on a diplomatic mission in the western regions by a group of missing nins, who took her eyes."

Naruto chuckled. "Not bad. That story means the warlord whom she visited could be made responsible for her death if need be."

Naruto eyed his old friends carefully. Kiba and Lee showed confusion about what he could mean, they probably hadn't been told about his position in the West. Sasuke, Neji and Hanabi on the other hand didn't react at all and Naruto suspected that they were better informed. Sakura's very surprised look puzzled him. He had expected her to know very well that he was in a position of power after their last encounter. Maybe she had been fed false information? But that didn't make any sense, did it?

Shikamaru interrupted Naruto's musings. "Naruto, we should talk to them in the arena with the other delegates nearby. This is dangerous."

"Are you that afraid of us, Shikamaru? And why would you let Naruto decide something like that?"

"That is simple. Naruto is the Emperor of the Western Empire and by that my superior."

Technically Hinata of course had the exact same rank as Naruto, but he was far more experienced in and comfortable with leading people, which made him the obvious choice to be the current leader.

The fact that Naruto had such an important position left Sakura speechless for a moment and she looked questioningly towards her husband. Kiba on the other hand was awed. "Dude really? That is awesome!"

Naruto grinned, but meanwhile Sakura had recovered from hearing this news. "I can't believe you would follow him. He is the nine tailed fox, a monster!"

But she immediately saw the disapproval on her old friends faces. Shikamaru was the one who answered. "Sakura we have been around Naruto for over two years now. I can guarantee you that he is anything but a monster."

"How can you say that? Have you even seen what he did to Sasuke back then?"

She saw that everyone from Naruto's group continued to stare at her angrily and so she turned to find support from the Konoha shinobi, but they didn't seem to fully agree with her either.

Kiba tried to steer the conversation into another direction. "I just hope you didn't take advantage of Hinata during this time, Naruto."

Naruto smiled and showed him the ring on his finger. "Well we are married and have kids. So it kind of is too late to tell me that."

"Wait if you are the Emperor I hope she isn't only one of your girls, like a concubine."

"What? Hell no! Hinata is my only wife and Empress and I don't want anyone else."

Kiba nodded, his concerns for Hinata's well being put to rest for now. Neji had tensed up as well when the topic was brought up, but just like Kiba he relaxed after hearing Naruto's answer.

Even though there was no outright hostility between the two groups they didn't really mingle. Two people would talk while the others watched the other group carefully. The tensions between Konoha and the Empire showed quite a lot.

During all of the discussion Hinata had just stared at her sister. She had first attempted to run towards her sibling to hug her, but a death glare from Hanabi had stopped her in her tracks.

"Hello sister." Hanabi put a lot of malice into her words, but her face kept up her stoic Hyuuga look, not showing any emotions.

"Hello Hanabi-imouto. It is good to see you again. You have grown." Hinata gave her sister a warm smile.

"Are you happy now that you have betrayed our clan and the village? I heard you even got together with that idiot you adore so much."

Shikamaru commented this with a "Troublesome" and Naruto put a hand on Hinata's shoulder to show her his support. He knew she was strongly affected by hearing her sister talk like this. But this was how things were going to be and there was nothing they could do.

Hinata answered, her voice very quiet. "I am very happy now that I am together with Naruto-kun. We even have two children, Minato and Hitomi. Minato sometimes reminds me of you when you were younger."

When Hanabi didn't answer Sakura butted in. "Wait you knew your sister was alive, Hanabi? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Sasuke shrugged. "It was declared an A-ranked secret and you have no clearance."

This caused Sakura to stare at her husband. After Naruto had helped the clans escape Konoha and bested Sasuke in combat again, Sasuke had needed reassurance and love to get him back to his feet, both of which Sakura was very happy to provide. Things went a lot better for a while to the point where they actually had a loving relationship. But it got worse again after their daughter was born. "Sasuke I mourned for Hinata. How could you not tell me?"

"She is an enemy of the Leaf. Besides we didn't know she had survived until months after she was declared dead."

While Sakura only continued to stare at Sasuke in disbelief Kiba's man sized dog trotted towards Hinata to get petted.

"Woah Kiba call that monster back, before it eats my wife!"

Hinata gave her husband an angry look, before she stroked the giant hounds back. "Naruto-kun stop being so mean towards Akamaru."

"THIS is Akamaru?"

Kiba was quite annoyed by the blond. "Of course he is you moron. Anyway Shino, Hinata why did you leave without even telling me. I thought we were a team?"

"I am sorry Kiba-kun, I got arrested after helping Naruto escape. I didn't even want to leave back then."

"Alright, I don't quite get how you managed to get to Naruto after being arrested, but fine. But what about you Shino?"

The Aburame adjusted his glasses. "After Kurenai-sensei sold out Hinata I could not take any chances. Besides you did believe the official story of Hinata being on an extended mission and not me and you took Danzo's side during the dispute within your clan."

"Danzo's side? What are you talking about? I only voted to support the Hokage."

Hinata replied in a soft voice. "Kiba-kun the Hokage is being controlled by Danzo."

"Woah that is a serious accusation. Do you have proof for that?"

Naruto's group glanced at each other. They didn't, not really.

Naruto tried to explain why they were so sure. "See Kiba on the day we brought Sasuke back..."

Sasuke butted in. "Dope he asked if you have proof, not about your life story."

This got Ino quite angry. "Listen Sasuke, I tried to enter Lady Tsunade's mind and there was a Sharingan eye staring at me. Because of that I was out for two fucking months. And yes, that asshole has stolen one of your clansmen's eyes and is hiding it behind those bandages of his."

Sasuke only smirked at that. "Are you sure that you didn't only hallucinate it because of the seal?"

Ino furrowed her brows. "What seal are you talking about Sasuke?"

Neji explained. "After you were gone, worried questions from Hyuuga clan members about a certain chakra signature on the Hokage made the higher ups release the information that for quite some time there has been a protective seal on the Hokage, which prevents any kind of mind control."

Sasuke put on a small triumphant smile. "You see that neither Ino nor Danzo could have gotten access to the Hokage's mind."

"This is stupid Sasuke! It is obvious that that is just a cover up story and a bad one at that. Why do you defend Danzo so much? Are you his little lap dog?"

Sasuke scoffed. "You are annoying Ino."

Ino actually wanted to storm forward to slap him, but Shikamaru put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He didn't want this to turn into a diplomatic incident.

Sasuke smirked. "What is wrong Ino? Don't you love me anymore?"

"You chose Sakura. I respected that and let you go. But you tried to get me to marry you, too, through that stupid Clan Restoration Act." Ino would have continued her tirade, but she remembered something far more interesting. "Speaking of which, how is your daughter? I wonder if she is as cute as Naruto's and Hinata's twins."

There was an uneasy silence, which Ino interpreted wrong. "Oh, oh no. I'm so sorry, I didn't know something happened to her."

Kiba made an annoyed grunt. "Nothing happened to her, the only problem is Sasuke here being an ass."

Sasuke gave him an angry look, while Sakura lowered her head with a sad expression on her face.

"I mean I know you are proud about your clans legacy and stuff, but getting that worked up about her hair color is ridiculous."

"That is none of your business! And all members of my clan have had black hair. She can not be called a true Uchiha without that."

Naruto's group only stared in disbelief at the Konoha shinobi. The only one unconcerned with what had transpired was Sasuke.

"Naruto I want revenge for what you did to me two years ago. Fight me!"

The former Jinchuuriki shook himself out of his stupor. "Sasuke if you think luck or a dirty trick caused you to lose, you are sadly mistaken."

But Sasuke ignored him. "And why don't you fight your sister, Hanabi? As far as I know you still need to best her in a public fight to be able to become clan head one day."

Hanabi stared at Hinata, who first lowered her gaze to her feet, but then lifted her head up again and looked back determinedly.

"You are right Sasuke, it is time to show the world how superior true Konoha shinobi are."

Sasuke smirked. "What do you say Naruto, I show you why the Uchiha are feared by everyone and we see who the true Hyuuga heiress is."

"Fine! You'll get your fight."

* * *

It was announced that before the finals of the Chunin exams there would be two additional showmatches. Soon the two Hyuuga siblings faced each other in the arena, while everyone else watched from the tribunes. In addition to the aforementioned Konoha group Gai and Kakashi were present as well. The proctor started the match.

"Begin!"

Both sisters were equally matched in speed and a fierce close combat fight ensued. Palm strike after palm strike was either blocked or evaded and they were in a stalemate for a while.

Then Hinata jumped away from her sister and used range attacks. Hanabi managed to dodge several Kunai, but a blast of water from Hinata's mouth almost hit her.

"Rotation!" A blue shield of chakra protected the younger Hyuuga from the water.

Then both sisters prepared to attack again.

"Eight Trigrams 64 palms!"

"Protection of Eight Trigrams 64 palms!"

When they met their arms were only blurs of speed. For a while it seemed they were equally matched, but then Hinata was driven back. When they separated Hinata was breathing a lot harder than Hanabi, her left arm hung limply by her side and her sister had managed to close a few of her tenketsu.

Up on the tribunes Naruto watched the fight intently, but he was not concerned how the fight was turning out. To prepare for his match with Sasuke he quickly made a few hand signs and released his gravity seal.

Down in the arena Hinata was hard pressed to keep her distance from Hanabi. Due to her disabled arm she was at a stark disadvantage. But thanks to multiple water techniques she could use with one handed hand signs only, she managed to stall the precious minutes until her arm returned to life.

After that both sisters met three more times in close combat and each time Hinata got visibly more exhausted and each time the damage caused by Hanabi's hits became more extensive. And on their last engagement Hanabi demonstrated that she still hadn't shown everything.

"Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"

Hanabi's hits came even faster than before. Hinata only managed to deflect the first ten of them before Hanabi broke through her defense and Hinata became a punching bag for her sister's assault. After that it was over. Even though she somehow managed to get back on her feet Hinata was a mess. She was breathing heavily and sweat was running down her face. She looked completely exhausted and both of her arms hung limply by her sides. And even if she had been able to move them, Hanabi had closed all her tenketsu, preventing her from molding chakra.

Hanabi sent a triumphant look towards Naruto, before she stormed towards Hinata one more time. But before she reached her sister Naruto suddenly appeared in front of her using Hiraishin. There was a gasp from many of the present veteran shinobi, who knew that technique. Then the proctor called the match.

"Due to outside interference Hanabi Hyuuga is the winner!"

Naruto helped Hinata up to the tribunes by simply teleporting her there. After making sure she was ok he left her with their concerned friends and made his way back into the arena for his own match. He had his Rinnegan active all the time, but his Paths were busy with tasks back in the empire and he planned to best Sasuke without even using his eyes.

Soon Naruto and Sasuke stood facing each other in the arena. Sasuke had a giant smirk on his face and just after the proctor had started the match he asked loud enough for everyone in the arena to hear:

"So your bitch didn't use her demonic powers to hide the fact she is the new host of the nine tails?"

He had probably tried to taunt Naruto to get him angry, but for now he had only left him speechless. A murmur ran through the arena and Sakura and Kakashi stared wide eyed at Naruto.

"What the hell Sasuke! You have to know we tried to keep that a secret to throw off the Akatsuki."

"What is wrong Naruto? Are you afraid for her well being?"

"I am not afraid! I know Hinata will be fine even if all the missing nins in the world are after her."

Sasuke scoffed, seeing Hinata as quite an easy target after her recent performance. Naruto continued.

"I just don't get what is wrong with you, Sasuke. How can you be so bitter and cold?"

Sasuke didn't answer.

"Is this about your brother again? What has he done this time?"

"He has done nothing. He hides from me! Whenever I seem to get close to him he is gone."

Somehow that didn't match with what Naruto knew. Itachi was actually the one Akatsuki about whose location he got the most reports. They just hadn't tried to engage him, because of how dangerous he was. But Sasuke would have surely gotten similar intel. Maybe those were false leads?

"That is no reason to act this way. Damn Sasuke, what can I do to make you see reason?"

Sasuke snorted and got into a ready stance.

Naruto shook his head and stopped his attempts to talk to his old friend for now. He noticed how Ino sneakily made her way to Sakura up on the tribunes to talk to her old friend. Naruto immediately reverted his attention back to Sasuke to not alert the Uchiha of what was happening. He made a hand sign and immediately there appeared a hundred Narutos on his side of the arena.

Sasuke went through a few hand signs himself and blew a giant cone of fire at the army of Narutos. Only a dozen of them managed to escape from the inferno and immediately stormed towards the Uchiha after the fire died down. Sasuke engaged the Narutos in hand to hand combat only to find out that he was a lot slower than the blond and after receiving a few vicious kicks he was sent crashing into the arena walls. Naruto dispelled his clones and waited until Sasuke stepped out of the dust and debris, Sharingan now active.

"You know Sasuke maybe I should thank you for revealing that I am no longer the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. I want to know what people in Konoha will say about Danzo trying to turn the son of the Fourth Hokage into a weapon with that out of the way."

Sasuke shrugged. "For that people would need to know about you being his son."

"Spreading that bit of information won't be that hard. And I can easily prove that fact with my birth certificate."

"You forget that that is still an SS-ranked secret in Konoha and Fire Country."

Naruto stared at him for a moment. Spreading an SS-ranked secret was high treason and punishable by death.  
"This doesn't make sense, Sasuke. Do you want to kill anyone who tells the truth?"

"No, only those who spread it. Those who know about that little fact do well to remember why we have to act this way. We can't allow you, an enemy of Konoha, to turn the people against their Hokage."

Now Sasuke had done it, he had made Naruto angry.

"Sasuke!"

Naruto dashed towards Sasuke, but then the Uchiha made hand signs which caused Naruto to stop and quickly create a wall with an earth jutsu, just in time to stop the beam of lightning chakra directed at him. The former Jinchuuriki knew that he wouldn't be able to use this earth for more jutsu due to the residue lightning chakra. He created a few clones to distract Sasuke, then he prepared his next jutsu.

Sasuke used Shuriken to deal with most of the clones, the last three he dispatched with a few quick strikes with his sword, using his Sharingan to read their movements. Then he fired several fireballs. Only half of them were aimed at Naruto, which were all dodged, the other half was simply headed for the sky, to prepare a Kirin, a lightning attack using artificially created thunderclouds. Sasuke noticed that the arena floor was starting to get covered by a thick fog. He wondered why Naruto was doing this as he could easily see through something like this thanks to his special eyes.

They continued to throw jutsu after jutsu at each other. At one point Sasuke found out that his Sharingan genjutsu had barely any effect on Naruto, both because of his Rinnegan and because he had practised hard to overcome his weakness to those kinds of attacks. Finally Sasuke decided it was time to finish things. In the sky a storm cloud had formed just as he had planned and Sasuke prepared his Kirin. Somehow Naruto realized that he was in trouble and was quickly going through a lot of hand signs, but Sasuke was sure he was too late. The gigantic lightning strike went down just where Naruto stood. But when the bright flash was gone and Sasuke looked at the place where Naruto stood before there was something he hadn't expected.

The fog that had covered the arena floor was gone and in Naruto's position stood a solid pyramid of gleaming ice. Before Sasuke recovered from his surprise two icicles burst forth from the pyramid, pierced Sasuke's shoulders and pinned him against the arena wall. Naruto removed one side of the pyramid, stepped out of his cover and walked towards the pinned up Sasuke.

"Ice? How?"

Naruto shrugged. "It is only the combination of wind and water and I am a master of both. Anyway Sasuke this is over. You lost."

"Never! I will prove that the Uchiha are superior to the Senju in any way."

"Huh?"

"Don't you know about the century long struggle between our two clans? We will be the ones deciding the outcome of this war and the Uchihas will be the winners."

"What are you talking about? I am not even a Senju myself and you serve one."

"You are related to the Senju, and you are the real living heir of their legacy. Lady Tsunade is too old to hold that title and she would be nothing without Danzo. Your people were the ones who put my clan into a slum and made us outcasts. I will make sure that everyone sees that the Uchiha are the Leaf's most loyal clan and that we are stronger than the Senju."

"Sasuke I don't know what 'my people' did to the Uchiha, but even if I am the Senju heir: we are not our clans. We can forge our own destiny without hatred and bloodshed. So why do you want to be a slave of the past?"

"I want revenge!"

And with that Sasuke used his curse mark. He transformed directly into stage two, his skin turned grey and he grew leathery wings. The ice crumbled and Sasuke's wounds closed.

Sasuke created a Chidori and flew towards Naruto with incredible speed. Naruto on the other hand had had enough. He created a small Rasengan and then used his trump card: A Hiraishin seal he had put on Sasuke during their close combat encounter. Naruto teleported very close to Sasuke, evading the outstretched arm with the Chidori and rammed his Rasengan into the chest of his former friend.

Sasuke was flung back by the force of the technique only to be stopped by Naruto's elbow in his back, after the blond had teleported behind him. Naruto created a group of shadow clones and put some distance between him and Sasuke. The shadow clones punched and kicked Sasuke around and finally one kicked him hard after diving under the Uchiha, flinging him into the air. The real Naruto meanwhile had created another low powered Rasengan. He teleported himself right above Sasuke and pushed the blue ball into the ascending Uchiha. Sasuke was sent crashing into the ground.

After the cloud of dust created by the impact had settled Sasuke could be seen lying unconsciously in a small crater, his curse mark receded. Naruto wanted to make his way over to the fallen Uchiha, but Maito Gai appeared before him, blocking his way.

"Winner Emperor Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!"

Naruto saw that Gai didn't plan on allowing him to speak to Sasuke again, so he gave a bow to the audience and revelled in the crowds applause for a while. Then made his way to his waiting friends. Only Ino was missing. He received a few pats on his back and got a quick kiss from Hinata, who had mostly recovered from her fight. Tenten was especially happy.

"That was great! You demolished that self-important idiot."

"Thanks! It's just dealing with Sasuke is so frustrating."

His friends remained silent, they knew Naruto still tried to return Sasuke to his old self.

Then Ino made her way over to the others. She had talked to Sakura for almost the whole match and left her only when the wounded Sasuke was approaching his wife, supported by Gai.

"I believe Sakura will need some time to think about everything, but I am certain she will be a lot nicer in the future."

That brought a bright smile to Naruto's face. "That is great Ino, you are awesome!"

"She even told me how her mother convinced her that you were the fox."

* * *

**Flashback**

Sakura sat at Sasuke's bedside and stared at his broken body, hoping he would make a full recovery. One day ago Kakashi had brought him and Naruto back from the Valley of the End, both close to death. Sakura had waited nervously until Tsunade finished patching up Sasuke and from then she stayed by his side. Even after Tsunade's treatment Sasuke remained an ugly sight. He was very pale, one of his arms had been broken and he had cuts, scrapes and burns everywhere.

After spending almost a whole day of staying by Sasuke's side and only going home to sleep for a few hours, Sakura had realized that so far she had only worried for one of her teammates. So she paid Naruto a small visit only to find him seemingly fine, sleeping peacefully with only minor injuries. Twenty minutes later she had been back in Sasuke's room.

The door opened and Sakura's mother entered the sickroom. Without saying a word she sat down next to Sakura and both watched the steady breathing of the injured boy for a while.

"You love him, don't you, Sakura?"

Sakura only nodded her head and continued to stare at Sasuke.

"I am sorry, Lady Tsunade should have known better than allowing that Uzumaki boy to go after him."

Sakura lowered her head. "Naruto probably didn't have another choice." Even though she said that, there was a lot of doubt in her. She knew Sasuke had wanted to abandon the Leaf, but she was sure that he would have never seriously hurt one of his old friends. So why did Naruto have to go this far?

"Do you really believe that?" Sakura's mother carefully removed a bandage from Sasuke's arm and revealed three deep gashes that looked like the claw marks of a large animal. Sakura gasped and her mother quickly put the bandage back in place.

"I am sorry Sakura, but a law from the Third Hokage prevented me from telling you the truth about your teammate Naruto. The old man probably believed that there was a chance the boy would turn out normal, but with what he did to Sasuke it is certain that the boy is lost and the council acted accordingly."

"What do you mean mother? What is wrong with Naruto?"

Sakura's mother lowered her head and put a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

"From birth Naruto was the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine tailed fox. The fourth Hokage couldn't kill the beast when it attacked the Leaf, only seal it away. However these seals are not perfect and we are certain that the fox has been in control for a while now."

Sakura stared at her mother with an open mouth. "Are you sure? I have been with Naruto for quite some time and I never noticed."

"Yes, the fox is known for being very clever. Without a doubt he imitated the boy almost perfectly. Luckily elder Danzo was able to discover this fact and he even made Lady Tsunade see reason."

Sakura thought about this. If Lady Tsunade had abandoned Naruto, her mother had to be right. She took one more look at the broken body of Sasuke, but now she didn't feel sorrow, she felt a burning anger.

**End Flashback**

* * *

Everyone was quite shocked that a parent would manipulate her daughter in such a way.

"Well at least she knows the truth now. I hope she gets her mother back for what she did."

Ino sighed. "There is one more thing. She is pregnant again."

With that Naruto's good mood was gone in an instant and everyone remained silent for a while.

Ino tried to steer the conversation into another direction. "So apart from Sasuke and, well, Hanabi, everyone else didn't seem so bad." Hinata actually glared at Ino at her mentioning her sister, but remained silent and the blonde continued. "You think they could help us against Danzo?"

Shikamaru shook his head.  
"I doubt it. Kiba and Neji are too loyal to their clans. And Lee didn't say anything. I guess he was unsure whether to call us youthful or unyouthful. Besides, even if we manage to recruit one of them it would be extremely dangerous for that person with how things are in Konoha."

Naruto nodded.  
"Yeah, we have to stop our assassination attempts with how tight their security is now. We can only hope that we get an opportunity where Danzo is away from the village or where we may capture Tsunade baa-chan."

"Wait you mean we completely abandon Konoha now?"

Naruto shook his head. "There is one more way. But it is going to be messy and still needs a lot of preparation. We shouldn't discuss this in public actually."

* * *

_One week later _

Hanabi entered the meeting room of the Hyuuga clan's elder council. On the left and right side of the room sat the elders and opposite of her was her father and clan head Hiashi. Everyone's eyes were on Hanabi. Her composure was perfect as always and she bowed shortly.

"You asked for me, father?"

"Yes Hanabi, we wanted to congratulate you for achieving Chunin rank. And we have heard how you defended the honor of our clan."

She lowered her head briefly. "I am sorry I failed to get the Byakugan out of our enemies hands."

"Nevertheless you managed to show how useless and weak your sister is compared to the true members of this clan. It is unfortunate that the failure of the Uchiha brat made this effort almost meaningless."

"I will do anything to rectify this failure and to make sure the Hyuuga are the only ones possessing the Byakugan, father."

Hiashi nodded shortly.

"I heard your whore of a sister already bred with that blond fool."

Hanabi didn't allow any emotions to show on her face. "Unfortunately yes, but I do not know if their children have the Byakugan."

"That doesn't even matter, we have to remove this stain on our family name."

Hanabi nodded. "Yes, father."

"Hanabi you have proven your worth and your desire to strengthen this clan. You are too young to join the council of elders, however I want you to attend it with me and act as my advisor. Use this opportunity to learn how to lead the Hyuuga, because one day you might be the one to take this position."

* * *

It was a cloudy morning and light rain was falling at the border between Earth Country and the Western Empire. Nine ninja in black cloaks with red clouds on them stopped right at the marker indicating the border. A tall orange haired man with many piercings addressed his comrades.

"We are doing this just as discussed: attack the city next to the border and wait for their reinforcements to arrive. I and the other paths will take care of the boy with the Rinnegan. Make sure you do not kill the hosts of the Seven- and Ninetails or the Kazekage if he turns up."

Everyone in his group agreed and they made their way into the Western Empire.

* * *

**A/N: In retrospect I kind of regret my decision to have everyone meet. It caused me so many headaches and I am still not happy with how some things turned out or how little some of them said.**


	12. Chapter 12: Akatsuki

**Akatsuki **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

Naruto's shadow clones were bored. They were assigned to operate the teleportation seal in Neozu, a city in the Northeast of the empire had nothing to do. In the city one of the two smaller ninja academies of the Empire was located. The clones were trying to pass the time by playing cards, but playing against yourself for a longer time is really predictable and boring. Suddenly the ground shook lightly and then they heard the sound of a giant explosion. The card game forgotten the clones leapt up on the nearest building. Far away they could see a rising cloud of dust over the eastern gate. Then they heard the sounds of several smaller explosions. One of the clones looked at his 'brothers'.

"I'll do it!"

And with that he performed the handsign to end his own existence.

* * *

In a giant chamber located in the palace in the capital of the Empire Naruto was listening to a discussion between the members of his council. Tenten, Shino and Fu had encountered a squad of shinobi with curse marks that protected a group of slave traders in lightning country. The debate about how to deal with the surely responsible Orochimaru was very heated as there there hadn't been any sign of him for a long time. Almost the whole council was present, Inoichi and Chouza had even brought Ino and Choji with them to prepare them for their future responsibilities as clan heads. Only Hinata was missing. She was inspecting the ninja academy in the capital. Suddenly a small seal on one of the walls began to glow red.

The room fell silent as they saw Naruto's now very serious expression and Shikamaru asked him:

"Naruto, what kind of seal is that?"

"I put a few experimental seals on that wall. They should only activate when one of the protective seals around our cities is destroyed. That one is for Neozu."

"Do you think someone might have accidently damaged it?"

Naruto thought about this. The seals had some self protective abilities and to destroy them a lot of force was needed. So for that to happen by accident was quite unlikely. Then the memories of a dispelled shadow clone flooded his brain.

"The city is under attack!"

This sparked loud murmurs and discussions in the room.

"Silence! Shikaku you deal with organising our forces here and send them to Neozu as soon as possible. Ino, Shika, Cho, Hive, Queen and Dragon you are with me. We go there now!"

It was not often that Naruto or Hinata used their authority in such an absolute way. Usually they discussed every decision with the council or at least their advisors. But when they gave orders like this everyone complied without question.

Naruto left the council chambers quickly, the three clan heirs and three ANBU right behind him. The Empire's ANBU uniforms were completely black and their faces were covered by simple black cloth masks instead of animal ones like the Konoha ones. To enable allies to distinguish between them, they had the kanji for their code names printed in dark red letters over their hearts. The easily as female to identify Dragon had a large katana strapped to her back, Hive wore sunglasses that could be seen through the eye slits of his mask and Queen had two large knives strapped to her belt.

The Uzumaki led his group through a long corridor and down a wide flight of stairs into the basement. He stopped in front of two large iron doors. Naruto drew a kunai, slashed his palm to draw blood and put his bloodstained hand on a seal edged into the door. The seal on the door glowed for a moment and then the large iron doors opened by themselves and revealed a teleportation seal. They had put up these security measures to not endanger the palace in case someone else figured out how to use these seals. Naruto created a few clones to help teleport reinforcements to their destination, then he and the rest of the group entered the seal and with a few hand signs Naruto activated the seal.

* * *

A few kilometers away Hinata was inspecting the Empire's main ninja academy where the final tests of the genin exams were being held. She couldn't help but feel proud. She was certain that the level of training they had managed to provide and the strong focus on practical skills would give their students a good basis to survive whatever awaited them in active duty. In the same time as the Leaf Shinobi learned only three basic jutsu, the Empire's shinobi were expected to master three additional techniques of their choosing. Every student who showed some talent in the art was taught in basic healing jutsu to increase the survival chances among the teams. Of course this meant that compared to the Leaf some theoretical aspects hadn't made it into the students' lessons, but Hinata had agreed with Naruto that those had been things they either learned during their training anyway or would never need.

The young Empress watched a fight between two of the top students of the academy. One of them was a member of the Yamanaka clan who had shown hardly any talent with his clans mind based jutsu, but showed an exceptional prowess in taijutsu and earth based techniques. His opponent was a Samurai from one of the clans that didn't outright reject any changes in their fighting style. The sword was still his primary weapon, but he had learned to use one handed hand signs for some basic techniques and ninja tools as secondary weapons. The two used real, only slightly blunted weapons, but of course they weren't supposed to kill each other. Shizune and her two apprentices stood at the sidelines to help immediately if one of them got injured.

The two fighters had started the fight both dressed up in fresh clothes but looking a bit tired and with several bandages around their arms and legs and bruises on their faces. They and the rest of the graduates had spent one month in the wilderness, having to survive, dealing with things like team changes and performing tasks set by their proctors. All of this under the lead of Chief Proctor Anko Mitarashi. She was far too scary and sadistic to use her as a regular teacher, but Hinata knew she was perfect to make sure their students were ready to become Genin.

The Yamanaka finished a few hand signs and spikes emerged from the earth and pierced the samurai's legs. The samurai turned into one of the logs that had been placed in the fighting ring for replacement jutsu. The Yamanaka spun around and managed to block the incoming sword slash with a kunai, then he immediately tried to put distance between him and the deadly weapon again by hurling several shuriken towards his opponent. The blond shinobi forced the samurai to block and dodge the throwing weapons and immediately prepared his next move.

The Yamanaka created ten clones, which immediately attacked his opponent. Hinata could see they were just illusions even without her Byakugan and she could easily distinguish the clones from the original, but that was something the young samurai still had to learn. He coated his sword with chakra and began a deadly dance. One clone after another dispersed after being hit with the blue glowing blade until only one of the blond shinobis remained. Without hesitation the samurai slashed right through his enemy. If there had been any danger the proctors would have stopped the fight before that happened. Instead the Yamanaka vanished in smoke and in his stead appeared a log that had been cleanly cut in half. The real Yamanaka had sneaked up on the samurai meanwhile and held a kunai to his neck. The fight was over.

Hinata kept a straight face while she clapped like many of the other observers to signify she was pleased with the performance of the students. She couldn't afford to show just how amazed she was about their fight, as they had shown more prowess than anyone in her class when they graduated, but she needed them to know that there was still a lot of room for improvement.

Suddenly a single soldier entered the room, seemingly a bit out of breath. He quickly announced for everyone to hear.

"All able bodied soldiers are to report to their superior immediately! Neozu is under attack and we are mobilizing."

The officers, who had been inspecting the academy together with Hinata excused themselves and left immediately. A few of the academy teachers, who were acting as reserves made sure their students were taken care of and then left as well.

Hinata approached the man who had brought the news.

"Do you know where I can find my husband?"

When the soldier recognised her, he bowed.

"The Emperor has travelled to Neozu himself to deal with this threat, my Empress."

"Thank you."

Hinata quickly left the Academy, deactivated her gravity seal and made her way towards the city's teleportation seal with inhuman speed.

* * *

When Naruto and the rest of his small group of ninja arrived in the teleportation seal of Neozu they found themselves in the middle of a large group of frightened civilians who were waiting to be teleported away to safety. Naruto pushed several people away to get to the edge of the seal to one of his clones.

"Wait a second for all of us to leave the circle and then get them out of... "

**Booom**

A large explosion destroyed half of the seal and killed dozens of the gathered civilians. A small animal made of clay had found the pack of unarmed citizens and considered them a worthy target.

A slap to his face courtesy of Shikamaru brought Naruto back to consciousness. He had been closest to the explosion and got knocked out by it for a short while. His companions had carried him into a nearby building to give him time to recover and plan their next steps. Naruto noticed that he was covered in blood, but after checking himself he realized that it was not his own. He shuddered slightly as he wondered how many of his citizens had been killed by that single bomb. Naruto saw that Ino had her eyes closed and a concentrated expression on her face. He knew she was trying to connect her mind to some of the citizens to gather information about what was happening. They waited until she finally opened her eyes and when she did she looked pale and fearful.

"It - It's horrible." Ino's voice was barely above a whisper and she shuddered slightly. "They are killing everyone they see and are hunting down the Academy students."

Choji put a hand on Ino's shoulder, while Shikamaru was less gentle.

"Pull yourself together Ino."

"R-Right! There are only nine enemies, all of them highly skilled ninja. Six of them have eyes like you, Naruto, but they all look differently. There is a woman with blue hair and wings of paper. And then there are Deidara and Sasori. You should know the reports from when they tried to abduct Gaara. I know where each of them is at the moment."

Shikamaru tried to convince Naruto to not take too many risks.

"Naruto, we should stay together and take them down one by one."

They heard another explosion and screams of agony from outside. Somewhere a child was crying.

"No! We split up and draw their attention on us. We need to protect the townsfolk."

* * *

Back in the capital Hinata had reached the teleportation seal. Two platoons of ninja were already in position to be teleported. The Empress stepped into the circle and addressed one of the Naruto clones operating it.

"Send us there now!"

The clone nodded and performed the necessary hand signs. Nothing happened.

"Damn! Someone must have destroyed the seal at the destination."

Hinata couldn't help but feel worried. It would take several hours for the first reinforcements to reach the city by conventional methods. She quickly entered her mindscape and woke the sleeping fox.

"Kurama-san, I need your help."

Moments later a yellow flash travelled through the lands of the Empire at an enormous speed.

* * *

Tenten waited in a small dark alley for her approaching opponent. The sounds of explosions came closer and closer. Finally she saw the silhouette of her enemy reflected in the window she had been observing. That meant her target had fallen right into her trap. With a few hand signs she activated the paper bombs she had placed beforehand. The explosion showered dust and debris everywhere and Tenten sprinted forth from her hiding place, going through several hand signs on the way. She broke through a cloud of dust and spotted her target only a few meters away. The brunette kunoichi finished her hand signs and blew a cone of fire that quickly engulfed and consumed the blue haired woman as if she was only made of paper.

Cursing Tenten swung around and barely managed to quickly unseal and throw ten kunai to stop the paper bombs her real opponent had thrown at her. For a moment both women gauged each other. Then Tenten smirked behind her ANBU mask.

"You are pretty good. What is your name?"

"Konan."

"Nice to meet you, Konan. My name is Dragon."

* * *

Ino, Choji and Shikamaru were still moving towards their opponent.

"Shouldn't we have split up more evenly, Shikamaru?"

Ino was a bit confused that they were going against one enemy with a full team, while Tenten was going alone.

"Keeping well cooperating teams together was important when considering who goes against who and our respective battle prowess of course. Currently we are lacking quite far behind our ANBU Captain in that regard."

"Still, we should try to finish our target quickly and help the others."

Shikamaru sighed.

"It's a drag but I fear we might not be able to do that. To be honest, I think we are the ones with the lowest success chances of all groups."

"What? Why?"

"Sasori is known to use potent poisons. We have to be very careful and not get cut even once."

"Shouldn't Fu have taken him on then? She has some resistance to poisons since she is a jinchuuriki."

"No, she needs to take care of Deidara. Thanks to her lightning jutsu she has the best chances to stop his earth based exploding clay."

Ino nodded. She realised she should have expected that Shikamaru had put more thought into quickly assigning them to their targets than he had let on.

* * *

In another part of the city Fu was desperately trying to get Deidara down from his flying clay bird with long ranged jutsu, while Shino watched his girlfriend from a distance. He hated fighting this way, but it was the logical thing to do. Fu was able to take a lot more punishment than him, thanks to her being a Jinchuuriki. This was proven when a clay animal attacked the insect clone Shino had sent to fight by Fu's side. The resulting explosion ripped the clone apart and Shino knew that the results wouldn't have been much different if that had been he himself.

The Aburame tried to plan his next steps. He had three different kinds of insects, but only one of them had the ability to fly.

These insects could drain the chakra of their victim and their wings could take them quite a distance. But they were slow flyers and catching Deidara with them was difficult. Shino had them currently hovering in one spot, trying to foresee Deidara's movements to catch him.

The insects of his main swarm couldn't fly, but they could drain much more chakra than their flying counterparts and Shino could use them for his techniques like the insect clones.

In addition to that he had a small colony of slightly bigger and stronger flesh eating bugs.

Shino created another insect clone, but instead of sending it to attack directly, he ordered it to hide in the ruins of a destroyed house close to Fu.

Fu on the other hand attacked Deidara's flying clay bird with another lightning jutsu. Deidara managed to dodge the attack and didn't notice that she had driven him right into the waiting insects of Shino. The bugs attached themselves to the clay bird and began drawing out its chakra.

One minute later the flying construct's strong beats of his wings suddenly slowed down and it tumbled towards the ground. Deidara jumped from the back of his creation and managed to cushion his fall enough with a bit of chakra in his legs so that he didn't break anything.

Immediately Fu attacked him, but unfortunately for her she passed over a clay mine Deidara had planted beforehand and only the layer of demonic chakra around her caused Fu to just get catapulted away by the blast and not get severely hurt.

Then Deidara saw the insects that were drawing the remaining chakra of his destroyed bird and he quickly detonated it. Since there was hardly any chakra left in the clay the explosion was more of a 'Poof' than a 'Bang', but it was enough to kill many of Shino's allies.

Turning around again Deidara spotted the insect clone Shino had created earlier and put on a malicious grin.

"Found you!"

The next explosion destroyed the whole building complex the clone had been hiding by. Shino remained unhurt, but he certainly didn't like how this fight was going.

* * *

Naruto and his six paths faced his six orange haired enemies with Rinnegan eyes. The young Emperor had already deactivated his gravity seal, he knew that he couldn't afford to hold anything back against an enemy like this. At the same time some of his shadow clones were creating a new teleportation seal in another part of the city.

"Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze I assume? We have heard quite a bit about you."

"I can't say the same about you. Who are you?"

"I am Pain. Leader of the Akatsuki. Hand over the Jinchuuriki under your protection and we will leave. If you don't we will turn your Empire into a wasteland."

"Jinchuuriki are not some kind of thing you can trade away. They are people! And you will face justice for what you did to this city and its citizens!"

"You are from Konoha and Konoha shinobi killed my family and destroyed my hometown because of their justice. This is my justice, it is no use to try to tell me what is right or wrong."

"Fine, then I'll just have to stop you. But why are there only six of you? Is the real one hiding somewhere? Are you too afraid to face me yourself?"

Pain didn't answer. He attacked.

A giant dog and a rhinoceros with piercings of chakra metal and Rinnegan eyes appeared and charged towards the group of Narutos. The blond shinobi had seen that the only woman among his enemies had summoned them and that made her his first designated target. He wanted to stop the giant animals from doing more damage to the city. Naruto created a giant fire elemental that stopped both animals with his hands. The rhinoceros was almost immediately consumed by the flames, but the dog's wounds closed quickly and he grew additional heads, becoming more powerful in the process. Still, Naruto was certain that his elementals were overall more powerful than these summons, but used up more chakra in exchange.

Naruto and his paths stormed past the fighting giants and towards the group of orange haired ninja. The path he had talked with before extended his his hand and suddenly Naruto was drawn towards him, the waiting arms of another path.

'The leader is the Deva Path, no surprises there.'

Instead of attacking the path he was sailing towards, Naruto catapulted another path away to create an opening and then teleported himself to safety. His Human Path dove right into the opening he had created and shoved a Rasengan into the opponent's Animal Path. Naruto's Human Path was destroyed as well as he had come right between his enemies, but Naruto considered this a good trade. The giant dog vanished in smoke and Naruto still had all of his battle oriented paths at his disposal. Then Naruto received the memories of his destroyed path and now he knew what it had felt.

'These are real bodies, but they are cold.'

Naruto's facial expression became grossed out.

"You are using corpses!"

* * *

Tenten watched how her opponent produced dripping wet paper sheets, obviously expecting more fire based attacks. The ANBU Captain smiled, her nickname Dragon had once again thrown someone off. She took two medium sized scrolls from her gear and opened them. She unrolled them and threw weapon after weapon at her opponent.

"Rising Twin Dragons!"

Tenten had thrown about half of her weapons, which were either dodged or blocked by stacks of paper when her enemy suddenly sent such a great wave of papers her way that Tenten couldn't throw weapons fast enough.

'Shit!'

Tenten was in no position to dodge so she switched to plan B. She cancelled her technique, the weapons she had unsealed so far would have to suffice, then she created strands of chakra, which connected to numerous of her weapons scattered around the battlefield. With a quick yank she pulled the weapons into the wanted direction and they sliced the incoming storm of papers into little bits.

What she used were the chakra strings originally developed by the Suna puppet masters. She would have liked to be able to say they had given the technique to her or that she had managed to redevelop it on her own, but that would have been far from the truth. She had stolen it one night from the Suna ninja library, but luckily nobody knew that, not even Naruto or Hinata.

Tenten continued to fight by attaching her chakra strings to the weapons all across the battlefield and stopping incoming attacks with them or using them to attack herself.

* * *

Naruto groaned inwardly as he watched Pain from a distance. He had put some distance between himself and the Akatsuki leader believing he was the only one who could easily replace his paths. But while Naruto had created a few shadow clones and turned them into paths with chakra metal one of the Pains had summoned a hideous head from the earth from which the previously destroyed paths emerged unharmed.

'And back to square one.'

That wasn't entirely true of course. Now he knew the abilities of his enemies' paths and which one he had to take down first to prevent Pain from 'reviving' them.

* * *

Shikamaru managed to get a hold on the bulky puppet with his shadow bind jutsu to allow Choji to get close without having to worry about the metallic tail. The Akimichi expanded his right arm into gigantic proportions and smashed the puppet apart.

Ino cheered over the mental link she had established between them.

'Nice work guys!'

'It is not over yet, Ino.'

Out of the remains of the puppet stepped a pink haired kid with a blank expression on his face. Shikamaru was quite worried as they had basically no idea about what he could do from this point.

Their enemy unsealed a single puppet,

"That looks like the Third Kazekage. Be careful, there are rumors of Suna puppet masters who could turn a dead person into a puppet and even use their abilities. The Third Kazekage was known for his Iron Sand techniques."

Choji nodded and suddenly had to catch a collapsing Ino. She had seen an opening to perform the Mind Body Switch on Sasori. But nothing happened and a few moments later Ino came back to."

"It doesn't work. I know I hit him, but he felt more like an inanimate object than a living being. I couldn't connect my mind to his."

"Look at him. He seems to be more like a puppet than a human himself. That must be why your technique doesn't work, Ino."

"Troublesome."

* * *

Naruto and his two remaining paths faced the two remaining paths of his enemy. He watched as the Preta Path performed some kind of barrier technique and the Deva Path he had identified as the 'leader' gathered chakra.

"Shinra Tensei!"

'Oh no!'

Naruto and his paths stormed forward. Naruto used his gravitational powers to try and get rid of the Preta Path. But the barrier flared up and absorbed the blast. His paths were just as unsuccessful and a shimmering, expanding sphere formed around the enemy Deva path. Naruto knew that this technique had the potential to destroy the whole city and he couldn't let that happen. He accessed the powers of his destroyed Barrier Path himself and surrounded the sphere with a basic barrier. Then he put more chakra into the technique and when he felt a resistance in the possible input, he just forced even more chakra in.

The effect was immediate. The barrier had seemed close to collapsing before, but now it was more defined than ever and Pain's sphere was unable to break it. The two techniques continued to clash until finally Pain's attack stopped. Naruto hadn't known about the exact side effects overloading his techniques brought with them. His whole body hurt and he felt extremely weak. Naruto sank to his knees, coughing up blood. Even worse was that he realized that all of his Paths and shadow clones had dispelled during all of this and the clones assigned to create a new teleportation seal had not been able to finish their work. Naruto tried to move, but the technique had taken too much of a toll on his body and the two remaining Paths of Pain came closer.

Inwardly Naruto cursed. He knew that the original was in just as much pain as he was. But the Akatsuki's paths made from corpses were sturdier than his shadow clones and could still fight.

They pushed him to the ground and the Deva Path used chakra metal rods to pin down his arms and legs. Naruto gritted his teeth as the rods painfully pierced his flesh.

"Why are you doing this? Why did you want to destroy this city. Why are you killing innocents?"

"They are just unfortunate sacrifices we have to make in order to achieve peace."

"Achieve peace? How can you say you want to achieve peace? Can't you see that you brought war to a peaceful city?"

"This is how this world of ninja work works. There will always be fighting in this world, which gives birth to pain, which gives birth to hate and war. I will bring this world to its knees and by that bring peace."

"You are insane! You just bring more pain and hate. How can you dream to achieve peace by that?"

"I thought you would know how. Didn't you achieve peace for your country through war? Didn't you stop the hate by cutting down your enemies and letting those live who fell in line?"

Naruto laughed. It was probably a bad idea to laugh at the man who held him at his mercy, but Naruto didn't care.

"You are wrong! Do you honestly believe I could have brought peace to this land with fire and sword alone? Everyone would have turned against me and even if I had managed to defeat all my enemies there would have been rebellions and unrest everywhere. This way there would never have been true peace."

Naruto left a small pause and he noticed that the orange haired man was listening intently. So he continued.

"I achieved peace through diplomacy and forging pacts. I achieved peace by forgiving my enemies, not seeking revenge for my fallen comrades and friends and turning my former opponents into my allies. I didn't achieve peace by killing my enemies, but through my many friends and allies."

Naruto knew that he was stretching the truth a bit. He couldn't exactly call himself a pacifist, but he had only used violence when there was no other way. And then there was the fact that some of the allies he had gained turned against him later or were more trouble than they were worth. But those were details and for the most part he spoke the truth.

Pain was about to respond when he suddenly whirled around and brought up a hand just in time to stop Hinata, who had been charging towards him covered in Kyuubi chakra. The Deva Path's powers catapulted her away at an enormous speed. Naruto cringed slightly as he witnessed Hinata being tossed through the nearest building's wall and out of view. But loud crashing noises indicated that the one wall alone hadn't been enough to stop her.

For a few seconds after the noises had stopped nothing happened. Then Hinata came rushing out of the very hole in the wall she created. The Deva Path raised his hand and activated his technique. 'Hinata' burst into smoke. Then the original appeared from behind another building and stormed towards Pain's Preta Path. The Path raised his hands and quickly absorbed her Kyuubi cloak when she was close enough. But the yellow chakra had concealed she was carrying a kunai and using her momentum she buried it in the path's skull. The path collapsed and Hinata managed to reactivate her chakra cloak just before the Deva Path sent her flying through the next building. The path turned towards the still incapacitated Naruto.

"Let me teach you about pain."

And with that the he followed after Hinata.

* * *

Tenten realized she had to do something new or there was a high chance she was going to lose this fight. Her enemy had systematically destroyed almost all her weapons and she was quickly running out of scrolls to unseal more. She grabbed for the sword on her back, drew it and got into her Kenjutsu stance. The sword was a beautiful katana with a red hilt and the blade was made out of two differently colored metals, the darker one forming complex seals.

"You should have realised by now that you can't beat me with a sword."

"This is an Uzumaki family sword, given to me by the Emperor himself. You would do well not to underestimate it."

Tenten charged. She poured chakra into the blade to sharpen it and it began to glow blue. This of course a Samurai technique to increase the effectiveness of their katanas. As a weapon enthusiast learning these techniques had been one of the first things to do for her after arriving in the western regions. And then Naruto had given her this magnificent blade. The difference to the weapons the common Samurai used in the West was gigantic.

Tenten sliced through waves of incoming papers all while charging towards the blue haired woman, her body flowing from one stance into the next. She felt as if the blade had become a part of her body and whispered tips and warnings to her. She saw that her enemy prepared a far greater attack than before and that her water soaked paper sheets were used up. Tenten broke into a small smile as she continued to storm forward. Konan unleashed a gigantic wave of papers, but the ANBU Captain simply molded her chakra before sending it into the blade and suddenly a torrent of flames burst forth from her weapon obliterating the thousands of papers flung her way. All without having to use hand signs. Konan was completely unprepared for not even slowing her enemy down and she hesitated a moment too long. When Tenten reached her, she was decapitated with one quick slash of the brunette's sword.

The ANBU Captain watched the blood on her blade and Konan's head fall to the ground, a surprised expression on her face. The Akatsuki's body collapsed next and blood pooled from the stump that was her neck. Tenten checked for genjutsu. There wasn't any. Konan was dead.

* * *

Shino was desperately trying to find a logical way out of their current situation and failed. The last explosion had incapacitated Fu and now a big centipede made of clay had snaked around her body and constricted her movement. She was barely conscious and in no position to free herself.

Shino on the other hand had lost almost all of his insects. The only trump card he had left were a few of his flesh eating bugs that he had managed to sneak on Deidara's clothing and had made their way under the blonde's cloak unnoticed. But unless they found an open wound or something similar they were not that dangerous.

"Hey you other ANBU guy come out and let me show you some real art. This will be a blast!"

Shino appeared from his hiding place. For now he was only trying to stall for time while he was thinking of a way to save Fu.

The self proclaimed artist smiled at Shino maliciously while the Aburame slowly stepped closer to the Akatsuki and his captive. But then the smile suddenly left Deidara's face and it was replaced with confusion. He ripped his clothes off as fast as possible. At the same time Shino smelled a pheromone his insects gave off when they were excited. They had obviously found something. Deidara threw off his shirt and revealed an additional mouth right over his heart. It was sewn shut but Shino's insects had cut some of the strings and wriggled through the opening.

The Akatsuki screamed in pain as the insects invaded his body and clutched at his chest to stop them. But it was too late for that. He felt that the insects were already very close to his heart so he stopped trying to get rid of them. I nstead he looked up to Shino.

"Well played."

Shino saw that Deidara was about to detonate the centipede constricting Fu. He ordered his insects to stop and since his pain subsided Deidara stopped as well.

"Let her go and I will call my allies back."

The blond villain took a look at the Aburame's ANBU uniform.

"Well 'Hive' unfortunately for you I know that you ANBU are too professional to do that. Let us just watch my last piece of art together instead. Katsu!"

And with a flick of his finger Deidara detonated the last bomb in his life. Shino's world seemed to stop as he watched helplessly as the clay animal constricting his girlfriend exploded.

* * *

It was a few minutes after Pain had gone after Hinata and Naruto was worried because he could do nothing but listen to sounds of fighting between his wife and her enemy. Suddenly the very person he was worried for stood right in front of Naruto. The 'Hinata' looked down on him with a pained but calculating expression.

"Naruto are you..."

'Hinata' stopped mid sentence. It was a stupid thing to ask him if he was alright considering he was pinned to the ground with metal rods through his limbs.

Naruto smiled weakly anyway.

"I am better now. You are a shadow clone, aren't you?"

The Hinata nodded.

"Naruto, I will draw out the pole constricting your hands. You have to create a shadow clone immediately after that. Your wounds will bleed heavily and we will need your Healing Path to deal with that."

Her husband agreed and 'Hinata' got on her knees and grabbed the metal pole that pinned down his hands. But then she froze and bit her lip, getting second thoughts about her plan. Naruto smiled at her reassuringly.

"Don't worry 'Nata, everything will work out. I promise."

Hinata smiled back at him. Then she got serious again and with a quick yank she pulled out the metal rod. Naruto winced shortly, but immediately got to work. On the third try he managed to focus his chakra well enough to create a single clone despite the chakra metal still in his body, his awkward position and his injured hands. 'Hinata' immediately went and retrieved a bit of the chakra metal one of Naruto's paths had left and pushed it into the clones neck. Naruto activated his Rinnegan and managed to turn the clone into the much needed path.

Several minutes later the young Emperor was freed from all the metal rods. They had turned him around and he was now lying with his back on the ground and his head in 'Hinata's' lap. The Healing Path had managed to stop the bleeding from all of Naruto's wounds, but it would still take him a long time to heal the wounds themselves. During all of this they had heard the sounds of fighting from where Hinata was, but Naruto couldn't help and the shadow clone wanted to be there to protect him.

Suddenly tere was a loud rumbling noise from just outside the city. Trees, rocks, some houses from the city's outskirts and giant chunks of earth were ripped from the ground and pressed into a sphere that was floating in the sky. And in the middle of the flying rubble Naruto spotted a yellow glowing figure, Hinata, who was desperately trying to escape the force pulling her upwards.

"Well this isn't good."

'Hinata' lifted his head from her lap and quickly gave him a kiss on his cheek. Then she put him down on the ground and got up. The usually confident and strong Naruto turned his head and looked at her with pleading eyes.

"Please save her."

'Hinata' knew that tone in his voice. It was the same as when she met him before his fight against Neji. She knew that only she had seen this vulnerable side of his and she would be damned if she was the reason he got hurt.

"Naruto I came here to make sure you are safe. But I can't die either. I promised myself that our family will not be torn apart and I don't go back on my word."

'Hinata' coated herself in the yellow glowing Kyuubi chakra she had received when she was created and sped off to rescue the original.

She stormed through a breach in the city walls and saw her enemy before her. He was still concentrating on the giant ball of earth and stone in the air and the clone performed a quick genjutsu to hide her presence while she got closer. Just before 'Hinata' reached Pain he spun around and managed to mostly dodge her palm strike directed at his chest. She only grazed his shoulder, but managed to pump enough demonic chakra through the point of contact to destroy his chakra pathways there and render his arm useless.

Pain extended his other arm and flung 'Hinata' away with his powers, while behind him the floating sphere cracked apart and started falling towards the ground because he didn't continue using his technique. The clone used her Kyuubi chakra to create spikes that dug into the ground and brought her to a halt after a hundred meters. 'Hinata' immediately charged again and Pain used earth jutsu to try and stop her. But thanks to the demonic chakra that didn't work. After she had simply broken through the third wall of earth she regained sight of her target.

Pain raised his working arm, produced an iron rod and flung it full speed towards 'Hinata'. The rod was too fast to dodge, but just before it pierced her and made her vanish in smoke, she smiled. She had achieved what she wanted.

Only now Pain realized that the clone had managed to completely distract him from the original. When he turned around Hinata was already upon him. Only his Shinra Tensei would have been fast enough to stop her, but there was a small timing window during which he couldn't use this power and Hinata knew that thanks to Naruto. The following palmstrike to his stomach flooded his chakra system with unrefined harmful demonic chakra. It destroyed the path's chakra coils and internal organs. For a short while the orange haired man remained standing as if he could continue the fight. Then he fell over.

* * *

Shikamaru looked around. It was over. They were defeated. With his last bit of chakra he held most of the seemingly endless amount of puppets in place. But that was quickly running out.

Choji lay on the ground in pain, poison preventing him from moving an inch. He had fought valiantly. The Akimichi had managed to release his clan's butterfly cakra wings without using a food pill. He destroyed the puppet of the Third Kazekage and many others. But going into close combat made him vulnerable and he got slashed with a blade and poisoned.

Ino had fought well, too. Even though her mind based techniques didn't work on Sasori, she had done everything she could. She had kept their minds linked during all of the fight, allowing them to discuss strategies without alerting Sasori. Right now she managed to keep the small amount of still mobile puppets away from her teammates with paper bombs and her limited taijutsu skills.

The one whose performance Shikamaru wasn't happy with was his own. He had neglected his ninja training and spent a lot of time micro managing the Empire. He swore to himself he would train more if they somehow managed to survive.

The Nara collapsed to his knees , his last bit of remaining chakra spent. The no longer restrained puppets moved towards the defeated team like a flood. Shikamaru hoped their deaths would be swift.

Suddenly the puppets stopped and the tip of a blade appeared out of the round canister in Sasori's chest. Behind him stood Tenten with her katana buried in his back.

"Hey guys! Miss me?"

"Dragon! Thank god!"

The missing nin tried to take at least some of his enemies with him using his remaining strength that was fading quickly. He moved his puppets forward and now they were only a few steps away from the defeated Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Tenten twisted her blade around, further destroying the contents of the canister. The puppet master collapsed and his puppets stopped only centimetres away from the clan heirs.

* * *

Naruto had his Healing Path still heal himself. His wounds were hardly visible anymore, but his arms and legs still hurt like hell. He had managed to create a few shadow clones and he just waited for them to finally finish the teleportation seal to bring reinforcements and medical aid into the city.

"Naruto! I am so glad you are alright."

Naruto smiled as Hinata came running towards him and captured him in a hug. The young Emperor winced when his wife accidently applied pressure to his wounds and she immediately let go of him and apologised. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Then his expression became serious again.

"Hinata, do you think you have enough chakra left to look for the original and capture or kill him? I don't think he can be too far away or his paths couldn't have used so much chakra so easily. We can't allow him to recuperate, create new paths and attack again."

She nodded determined.

"I will find him, Naruto."

He noticed a dangerous gleam in her eyes.

"Hinata can you try to capture him alive, please? I don't think he is all that bad, he just goes about things the wrong way."

The former Hyuuga would have liked to rip the man apart for what he had done to the townsfolk and her husband, but to her Naruto's opinion was more important than her own wish for revenge.

"I'll try."

She gave Naruto a quick kiss, shrouded herself in Kyuubi chakra again, activated her Byakugan and sped off to look for their hidden enemy.

* * *

Shizune and her apprentices were among the first reinforcements being teleported to Neozu through the new teleportation seal. They found Shino while he was desperately trying to stop the flow of blood from a bloody stump where a leg should have been. The rest of the leg was lying a hundred meters away between a pile of rubble. Fu was in a terrible state so that Shizune hadn't been sure that it was her at first. Shino had taken off his own and Fu's ANBU masks as they had gotten in the way of his first aid attempts and this showed how desperate the Aburame had become. Shizune would have to have a word with her students to keep their identities a secret afterwards. The medics immediately got to work and Shino watched in silence as they tried to save his girlfriend. After half an hour Shizune finally let out a relieved sigh.

"Will she be alright?"

Shizune was slightly startled to suddenly hear him speak.

"She is stable for now, which is a miracle considering her injuries, but jinchuuriki are tough. She will live. I am not so sure if we can save her leg though."

He nodded and continued to watch in silence for a while, while holding Fu's hand.

Then Shino suddenly gave his unconscious girlfriend a kiss on the hand he was holding, stood up and walked away. Shizune looked after him questioningly.

"Where are you going Shino?"

"There is something I have to do."

* * *

In a small, dark cave Nagato hung limply in his chakra metal frame. Konan had hidden his real body here after they had found the cave right next to the border to the Empire. He was exhausted after having fought a Rinnegan user and the host of the Kyuubi. The Akatsuki leader had realized that Konan should have come a long time ago to help him and now it had become painfully clear to him that she simply would not come anymore. Nagato wondered what he could do once he had regained his strength. His paths were out of his reach and he could not move his legs, not even leave the frame. He wondered whether he would simply slowly die because he couldn't sustain himself. He felt being found by his enemies might result in an easier death than that.

But then he heard footsteps coming closer in the relative darkness of the cave. First a black Akatsuki robe with the regular red clouds came into view, but instead of a face the man had an orange mask with a single eyehole.

"Hello Nagato-sempai."

Nagato watched the man he knew as Tobi carefully. There was something about him he definitely didn't like.

"I can't allow you to die here Nagato-sempai. I still need your help for something important."

Tobi had stepped close to Nagato and to his surprise he could see a Sharingan eye behind the mysterious man's mask. Before Nagato could do anything Tobi's eye became active and a swirling force drew Nagato into another dimension.

* * *

Deidara awoke from being dragged by his collar over a slightly muddy forest floor. He wondered how he was still alive. The last thing he remembered was passing out after his enemie's insects had started eating him from the inside. Somehow he couldn't move his arms or legs, but he managed to angle his head in a way to find out that the one dragging him was the male ANBU he had fought. He wondered if he had at least managed to take down the girl.

"So is your partner dead?"

"No, I left Queen with our medical corps, she will be fine."

Shino wasn't in the mood to tell Deidara about how bad her injuries were or that she might lose one leg.

"Too bad, it was such a beautiful explosion."

If Deidara had been able to look through Shino's usual cold and stoic behaviour, he might have not dared to speak that sentence. On the inside the Aburame harbored a raging fury, screaming for revenge.

They had reached a small clearing and Shino sat Deidara down against a tree.

"What is going to happen now, Hive?"

"I will leave you here."

"Wait! What is the catch?"

"My insects have cut the tendons in your arms and legs. You won't be able to move. I will return in one week."

"You will return in one week? Do you want me to slowly die of thirst and hunger?"

"No, I have lost most of my insects during our fight. They need a place with lots of food and protection to breed a new swarm. Like your body."

Deidara paled for a moment, but he quickly managed to hide his fear.

"You just want me to die a painful death, don't you?"

The Aburame adjusted his glasses. "Yes."

"So this is about revenge? I thought you ANBU guys were stone cold professionals. Hey come back here!"

But Shino just walked away and Deidara felt how the insects, which were already inside of him began to stir. As he walked away Shino heard Deidara begin to scream in agony. One week later he returned and collected his new familiars. Shino didn't bother with with burying the bones, the only thing left of Deidara.

* * *

_Several days after the Akatsuki attack_

The Imperial Council was discussing the damage and the the Akatsuki attack had caused. They were looking for ways how to detect attacks earlier and how to better respond quicker to incoming threats.

During the fighting almost two thousand citizens of Neozu were killed, only a small part of its overall population, but still a painful blow against the empire. Even worse was that Akatsuki had targeted the local Ninja Academy and its teachers and students. It would take quite some time to train new teachers and students until the academy was back at its former level. The extensive damage to many of the city's buildings and the expenses necessary to support the injured and homeless citizens were the least of their problems as the Empire had established a healthy economy that could bear these costs. The worst thing was of course the fact that the original Pain hadn't been caught. All of his paths had been cremated, but he could easily create new ones. Naruto and Hinata were glad that at least all of their friends had made it through this ordeal alive.

In a puff of smoke two giant toads suddenly appeared in the council chamber of the imperial palace. Several of the council members drew weapons and got into a combat ready stance. The orange toad looked around as if searching for something.

"Gamakichi, Gamatatsu is that you?"

The toads looked into the direction of the voice and smiled. Both of them hadn't recognized Naruto at first because of how much older and more mature he looked.

"Naruto! It has been a while."

Naruto looked around at the council members, who still stared warily at his old friends.

"Uh guys can you give us a minute in private please?"

Shikamaru and the other council members reluctantly left the room. Only Hinata stayed by Naruto's side.

"Anyway you are looking well, Naruto."

"You two are looking good, too, guys."

"And who is that pretty lady?"

Hinata smiled at the compliment and bowed shortly to the toad.

"I am Hinata Uzumaki-Namikaze. Naruto's wife. It is good to meet you Gamakichi-san, Gamatatsu-san. Naruto has told me a lot about you both."

"Nice to meet ya, too, Hinata-san. Good to see someone is taking care of Naruto."

"Hey guys, I need to show you something awesome."

"Is it candy?"

Naruto smiled because of his old friend's antics.

"No it is not candy, Gamatatsu. But I promise I'll get you some of the Empire's yummiest candy later."

The door opened and in came a path of Naruto, with Hitomi riding on his shoulders and a clone of Hinata, carrying Minato.

The eyes of the dark haired girl widened and a big smile showed on her face. After Naruto's path had let her down she immediately made her way to Gamatatsu.

"Froggie!"

She carefully touched the huge toad's skin.

Gamatatsu smiled at her.

"Human tadpoles!"

The Hinata clone had put down Minato as well, but contrary to his sisters reaction the boy hid behind the legs of his mother, intimidated by the giant toads.

When Hitomi saw this, she waddled towards him, grabbed his hand and lead him towards Gamatatsu. The toad himself extended his giant tongue, picked up both children and put them on his back. Minato was a bit scared at first, but the giggling and overall happy behaviour of his sister soon calmed him down.

While Gamatatsu continued to play with the toddlers under Hinata's watchful eyes, Gamakichi indicated to Naruto that he wanted to have a word in private.

"So what's up, Gamakichi?"

The toads expression darkened as he explained.

"Jiraiya has changed a lot since our last meeting, Naruto."

"Yeah he is under the influence of that bastard Danzo unfortunately. I asked my friend Temari's summon to inform you, too. I hope you got that message."

"Oh don't worry, the weasels brought us your letter. We noticed quite a change in his behaviour ourselves, too. But still, he was the Toad Sage. Before this every single Toad Sage stayed in this position until their death."

"What do you mean? Isn't he the the Toad Sage anymore?"

"No, he was stripped of his title by Gamabunta, Ma and Pa with the approvement of the Great Toad Sage."

This worried Naruto, whatever had caused the toads to act this way must have been big.

"Why the break in tradition?"

"He ordered one of my cousins to use oil and a fire jutsu to burn down a village where a group of enemy shinobi was hiding. But he didn't tell him that there were still men, women and children in that village. It must have been a terrible sight. Over fifty innocent civilians died in the fire."

Naruto shuddered and couldn't help but feel depressed about being incapable of helping his old sensei.

"I wish I could help Ero-Sennin, but I just don't know how to get to him or if we could even break Danzo's influence over him."

"Naruto, there is a very good reason why Gamatatsu and I have come to see you. Now that Jiraiya has lost his title we need someone new to take his position."

"Huh?"

"The elders want you to learn the sage arts and become the new Toad Sage. No matter for how little time, you were still the old man's disciple."

* * *

_Three years later _

Hanabi was once again called before the Hyuuga clan's elder council. She had changed from her ANBU uniform into the normal Hyuuga attire. Once again everyone in the room had their eyes on her and once again Hanabi's composure was perfect. After she had greeted her father and the elders Hiashi spoke up.

"These are hard times for Konoha. Our enemies have managed to sway our old allies and we stand alone. It is time to show that we are still the greatest ninja village and that our new generation is stronger than that of any of our enemies."

Hiashi left a small dramatic pause and looked at the determined faces of all the Hyuuga elders.

"Hanabi, the Hyuuga respect strength and honor above all else and you have surpassed me in every respect. You will be inaugurated as the Hyuuga clan head in one week. I know you will make us proud."

Hanabi barely managed not to smirk. She knew exactly why her clan did this right now. The Sarutobi clan was preparing to name Konohamaru clan head in two weeks as a sign of strength and a good future. Her clan attempted to copy this idea and make it look as if they had it first.

Instead she bowed. "Thank you for your trust father, ..." She bowed towards the Hyuuga elders "honorable elders."

Hanabi wondered to herself how she managed to remain so calm even in this situation, but screwing up now was not an option. Finally her goal was so close.

'Neesan ...'

**A/N:**

**Thanks a lot to firemageallanna for the ANBU code names and to starbeam79 for the city name. And thanks to everyone else who submitted suggestions, of course. I used Dragon for Tenten's code name, because I wanted something a bit more intimidating for my ANBU Captain. **

**Some of the stuff I wrote is quite dark, which is why I changed the rating to M for safety reasons. I hope nobody minds. **

**It feels kind of odd having Hinata not talk to Naruto with the kun suffix. I hope I got my facts correct thinking that between married couples suffixes are dropped as a sign of familiarity. Since Hinata tends to use them correctly I went with that.**

**I am really interested in what you think about the way I depicted the fights. I switched often between the different ongoing battles and left big parts of them to your imagination. I wonder if this might have been a bit too confusing.**


	13. Chapter 13: A mask falls

**A mask falls**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

* * *

_Three years passed since the Akatsuki attack._

Fu recovered from the heavy injuries she had sustained in the fight against Deidara. She didn't even have any long term problems with her reattached leg thanks to the healing powers of her biju. While Fu was unable to go on missions Shino helped out as a regular Jonin in the capital and occasionally participated in missions when teams needed an additional member. After half a year of recuperation and training to get back in shape Fu reentered active duty and despite the risks she and Shino rejoined the ANBU.

Over the years the Empire managed to further consolidate its power. From its Ninja Academies graduated students that could easily compete with the students from the established academies of the ninja villages. While each of the Elemental Nations had been able to rely on the fact that they had far more trained ninja than the Empire before, their supremacy was now dwindling.

At the same time shinobi with curse marks became a true menace. They supported smugglers, drug dealers and other criminal organisations in Earth Country, Lightning Country and Wind Country. They caused serious problems in the countries' provinces and some regions fell completely under the criminals' control until the local ninja village decided to clean up. Then the strange shinobi disappeared and reappeared somewhere else. Several groups of these mysterious shinobi had tried to enter the Empire as well, but so far the Empire's intelligence network and border patrols had prevailed. It helped, too, that the Empire's citizens were extremely loyal to the government that had brought them peace and criminal organisations were immediately reported. Unfortunately nobody managed to track down the shinobis' base of operations.

* * *

Naruto stood alone on a balcony of his palace and watched his children perform basic chakra control exercises in the courtyard under the supervision of one of his paths. He had a thoughtful, almost sad, expression on his face.

"Naruto? What is wrong?"

He hadn't noticed that Hinata had entered the balcony behind him.

"Can you believe we allowed Danzo free reign over Konoha for so many years?"

"Naruto you know Shikamaru was right. After our first assassination attempts Konoha and especially the Hokage Tower were turned into fortresses. We had to stop."

"Yeah, but maybe we could have intervened sooner."

She wrapped his arms around him from behind and leaned against him.

"We weren't ready yet, Naruto. It would have been a bloodbath."

Naruto nodded absentmindedly. He had had these kinds of conversations before and knew all the arguments by heart. But he just needed confirmation once more

"And we really haven't overlooked something? Some way to avoid all bloodshed? "

"No, Naruto. I don't think so. "

Naruto sighed.

"And what about all our friends in Konoha? Tsunade-baachan and Ero-sennin? Your sister?"

"We will make sure they all survive."

The blond relaxed visibly.

"You are right, Hinata."

Hinata kissed his cheek.

"Of course I am."

Naruto smiled. Hinata's shy and insecure nature still showed from time to time even after all these years, but when he needed support he could always count on her. Hinata continued to talk, wrapping him closer in her arms at the same time.

"In a bit more than one month is the meeting of the kages we called together and knowing how much they respect you, they won't stop us. Then we can march against Konoha directly with the help of Gaara and we will make sure that there are as little casualties as possible."

A smile played on Naruto's worried face.

"And then Konoha will finally be free."

* * *

**Flashback: After the match between Hinata and Hanabi**

Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru had just arrived back at the imperial palace, when the Nara dragged them into an empty room and put privacy seals up.

"Alright I want to know why you intentionally lost against Hanabi, Hinata."

"I-I don't know what you are talking about, Shikamaru."

"During the fight I was wondering why you seemed slower than usual and why you tired out so quickly. And then I saw how Naruto released his gravity seal in secret during your match. So please tell me Hinata, why didn't you remove yours?"

Hinata lowered her head and Naruto sighed.

"It's like this Shikamaru ..."

**Flashback end**

* * *

It was the day of Hanabi's inauguration as the Hyuuga clan head. Hanabi was dressed in the traditional ceremonial robes and was silently praying at the little shrine in the Hyuuga compound. This was part of her inauguration and she had already managed to survive through a two hour long tea ceremony.

She had been so incredibly patient for so many years, but now the endless ceremonies were severely getting on her nerves. She wanted to be done with them already and be able to complete what she had worked for all this time.

Her thoughts began to wander.

* * *

**Flashback: Hinata meets Hanabi during the escape of the clans from Konoha**

It was a normal day in Hanabi's training schedule in the Root training facility. Hanabi knew she didn't have anything to fear from the training. Her teachers just made sure she was disciplined and strong and they didn't try to mess with her head and switch off her emotions. Her father had called in a favor to have her trained rather than give her up to Danzo and she was most likely too old to be affected by their methods anyway.

She still hadn't heard anything about her sister since she vanished so many months ago. This worried her to no end, but there wasn't anything she could do. Whenever she asked someone about Hinata they told her she was on an extended mission. But Hanabi knew that something was wrong since her team wasn't with her and she had disappeared on the day of Naruto's escape.

Hanabi was in the middle of a training fight with one of her instructors when she heard the unmistakable sounds of real combat and screaming, which were coming closer to their room. Her instructors assumed positions in a wide half circle around the door. The door was kicked in with incredible force and in stormed a terrifying orange beast.

The beast attacked Hanabi's instructors and tore them apart. It accidently destroyed one of pillars holding up the ceiling and caused the ceiling in the middle of the room to begin to collapse, but the monster just continued to kill one Root instructor after the other. And then it suddenly stopped.

The orange chakra surrounding it receded and there no longer stood a monster, but Hinata, her sister. She looked completely exhausted and Hanabi immediately saw that she couldn't fight anymore. The last surviving instructor had remained in front of Hanabi, shielding her. Now he made his way towards Hinata to finish the exhausted girl off. Hanabi activated her Byakugan, put her hand on the correct place on the man's back and pushed enough chakra into his heart to make it explode. Hinata looked at her in shock, while Hanabi remembered to quickly get rid of the body by throwing it under the slowly collapsing ceiling, before making her way to her sister.

"Neesan!"

Hanabi hugged Hinata tight and for the first time in years she shed some tears.

"Imouto."

Hinata gently stroked through her sisters hair. Then she looked horrified at the corpses of the people she killed in such a brutal manner.

"I-I am sorry you had to see this, Hanabi. I just wanted to rescue you."

"It-It is alright neesan. I am just glad to see you are alright. I-"

Hanabi suddenly burst into more tears.

"I was so worried. I didn't know what they had done to you and I couldn't find you."

Hinata drew her sister closer.

"Shhh everything is fine now, imouto."

Hanabi calmed down a bit and after a while she felt better.

"Neesan, what kind of power was that?"

Hinata's voice grew very quiet.

"I am the new jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, Hanabi. Naruto had to transfer the fox to me to free me from the cursed seal."

"Hah! He really must be a great boyfriend if he did that to save you. I heard jinchuuriki normally die if they lose their tailed beast."

"S-So you don't think that I am a monster?"

Hanabi looked at her as if she had grown an additional head.

"You are not a monster. You are my neesan."

"Thank you Hanabi. B-but Naruto isn't my b-boyfriend."

Hanabi smiled at her.

"Make sure you show that idiot how much you like him, so that he gets the hint, neesan. I want you to be happy."

Hinata lowered her head a bit and fiddled with her hands, but she smiled at the same time.

"Thank you."

The sound of another part of the ceiling crashing down reminded Hinata that they were still in danger.

"Imouto, Naruto is evacuating his friends and some of the clans from Konoha to the western regions. Please come with us."

"I am sorry neesan but I can not do that."

Hinata looked crushed, which hurt Hanabi a lot. But she knew that this was what she had to do.

"I promised to fulfil your, no our dream to change our clan and just like you I will not go back on my word either."

Now Hinata stared at her sister with open eyes.

"I-I hope you succeed. I just want the Hyuuga to be one family again."

She lowered her head.

"Th-the one who p-put the c-curse mark on me was f-father. Please be careful Hanabi."

Her sister nodded. She wasn't exactly surprised about this revelation about her parent. The younger Hyuuga now got increasingly nervous that someone might see them and realize she was just pretending to be the obedient little heiress. She gave her sister one last hug.

"Sorry neesan, but I have got to go."

Hanabi detached herself from her sister, turned around and ran right through the area where the ceiling collapsed, while dodging falling rubble and managed to get to the other side of the room.

**Flashback end**

* * *

Hanabi smiled inwardly because of the memory. It had been the only time she had ever taken off her mask and confiding in her sister had felt incredibly good and taken a huge burden off her. And it had once again assured her in her wish to change her clan.

Usually it would be impossible to enforce anything against the will of the elder council, but there was an exception. The very first order of a new clan head was to be implemented without anyone having the right to object to it. This rule had brought some important changes to the Hyuuga and it had possibly been the only reason why the Hyuuga didn't perish because of stagnation.

She continued with the ceremonies, but the motions were so ingrained in her that she could allow her thoughts to wander again.

* * *

**Flashback **

A four year old Hanabi was happily playing with her sister in the gardens of the Hyuuga compound. Their ball rolled through a few bushes and behind a building and Hanabi went to get it. She found it under an open window, grabbed it and was about to walk away when she heard voices.

"You have to understand our position here Hiashi. Hinata is far too soft, she must not become clan head under any circumstances."

Hanabi froze and remained as quiet as she could. Next she heard the voice of her father.

"Hinata may be a lost cause, but with a bit of discipline Hanabi could still become a respectable clan head."

"Of course. She is still young. But if she doesn't change we have to take action. You know that one of your children is bound to become clan head by tradition, if you have any."

"Don't you dare lecture me! I always put our clan above all else, even my daughters. If Hanabi doesn't change we will get rid of them both."

Ten minutes later Hinata found her sister. She was crying under a tree in the gardens. Hinata wanted to console her, but Hanabi swatted her hand away and stormed off.

**Flashback end**

* * *

That day had been the end of the old joyful Hanabi and the birth of the new cold and disciplined heiress. A single tear ran down Hanabi's face when she remembered how she had treated her sister to keep up appearances. Hanabi quickly wiped it away before anyone saw it.

Half an hour later the ceremonies were finally over. Hiashi declared her to be the new clan head in front of the elder council and after that she made their way to the biggest courtyard in the compound, followed by the elders, to be introduced to the branch family as their new clan head.

The courtyard was filled by members of the branch family of all ages as they waited for their new clan head to make her inauguration speech. Hanabi stepped in front of all of them confidently. After everything had quieted down she began.

"I am Hanabi Hyuuga, new clan head of great the Hyuuga clan!"

The members of the branch house were anything but excited. To them she was just a new face for their leader, while the elder council would continue to hold the real power. In addition to that she hadn't exactly been very kind to the members of the branch family in her overall behavior.

"My first act as clan head is not to enforce something new, but to go back to the traditional ways of our honorable clan."

A groan went through the members of the branch family. They suspected that some stupid old tradition was about to be unburied.

"Two hundred years ago a new custom was introduced to the Hyuuga that weakens our great clan to this day."

This sparked some low whispers among the crowd as they wondered what she meant.

"Two hundred years ago a new custom was introduced that split our clan, our family and turned most of us into slaves. The Hyuuga cursed seal was introduced as a way to protect our bloodline, while in reality it is just a way to enslave those that bear it."

For a moment there was complete silence as everyone stared at her in shock.

"Hanabi Hyuuga stop this at once! I forbid it!"

That was the voice of her father. She ignored him.

"I, Hanabi Hyuuga, head of the Hyuuga clan decree as my first act as clan head to remove the Hyuuga cursed seal from all members of the branch family. Our family shall no longer be divided into slaves and masters. Therefore putting that seal on anyone is from now on to be considered an act of slavery and punishable by death."

There were actually some cheers among the usually very dignified crowd of Hyuuga.

"I know about the necessity to protect our bloodline and we will ask the seal masters of the village to create a new seal without the ability to control its bearer. But this new seal will be put on the whole Hyuuga clan and not only the branch family."

The new clan head smiled encouragingly towards the big group of Hyuugas.

"Now step forward so that elders and I can undo your seals."

An excited boy, about nine years old immediately ran forward and stopped right in front of her. Hanabi smiled at him. Then she took a kunai from her pockets, slashed her thumb and put her bloody finger on the youth's forehead. With a few one handed hand signs of her other hand she performed the secret jutsu she had found in her clan's library. The boy cringed a bit as he felt the seal dissolve, but when it was gone he smiled happily, hugged Hanabi and then ran towards his parents.

Nobody had tried to get their seal removed from the elders so far, but Hanabi had expected this. She put her hand on the forehead of the next branch member when someone swatted her hand away. It was her father.

"This farce ends now!"

Hanabi glared at him.

"There is nothing you can do, father. By law and customs of the Hyuuga clan nobody can object to a clan head's first decision."

"You are not the clan head Hanabi. You are a failure just like your sister."

The young Hyuuga would have laughed in her father's face if this matter wasn't too important. She had spent so many years of her life just for this moment and she wasn't going to let it all just be taken away.

"Father please trust me, this is for the good of the clan. Once our families are united we will be stronger."

"No Hanabi, my blinded child. You are hurting this clan more than you know. I have to stop you."

Hanabi's voice got an icy tone.

"Father if you stop me now you would go against one of the most sacred traditions of our clan. You would throw away your honor, that you hold in such high regards, just for the feeling to have power over this people. It would make you a hypocrite."

Her father's face became really thoughtful for a while and Hanabi hoped she had managed to convinced him. But then his expression turned hard again.

"Hanabi Hyuuga, for pretending to be the Hyuuga clan head and attempting to start a rebellion against the council of elders we put you under arrest."

Hanabi now had tears in her eyes as she wondered how this could have happened.

"Take her away!"

Hanabi noticed that the members of the branch family stepped close to her. But in her upset state she didn't realize that they were shielding her instead of apprehending her. Then five of the branch members attacked the elders and they were immediately stopped as their curse marks activated. But the elders didn't stop there and everyone could see they were about to kill the attackers to make an example out of them. This brought Hanabi back to reality.

"No!"

With a scream she threw herself against the elders and managed to kill three of them before she was surrounded and incapacitated. She never noticed that others had followed her charge as well.

* * *

Three hours later Danzo stared in disbelief at the ANBU who had finished his report about the events at the Hyuuga compound. The fact that Hanabi Hyuuga had fooled them all was a surprise, but it was something he could have dealt with. She might have been a tough opponent during council meetings, unlike the other current clan heads, but she still would have had to obey her Hokage.

But what Hiashi Hyuuga had done was inexcusable. Thirty members of the branch family and three elders had died during the short revolt. They had for the most part been shinobi in their best years, even four ANBU were among them. In just one day they had lost two thirds of the clan's active shinobi.

Hiruzen would have probably arrested Hiashi and the rest of the Hyuuga elder council immediately and reinstated Hanabi as clan head, but Danzo couldn't do this. He couldn't risk to further weaken the clan. Danzo stormed out of the office and headed to the dungeons in the village's prison. He needed something, or someone rather, to vent his anger.

* * *

_Three days later_

A terrible sandstorm blew through the Suna desert. Normally even the most experienced shinobi squads would seek shelter under these conditions, but the group of genin under the command of Jonin Jun Hishimari had found tracks in the sand right before the storm hit them. Jun had seen immediately from the distance between the tracks that the person must have been a shinobi. Now they had zero visibility thanks to the storm and Jun hoped the person they had been chasing had stopped and looked for shelter. He was certain of his ability to keep going in one direction even under this conditions, but if their target wandered off track they had no way to find him or her. In the next moment Jun almost stepped on a body lying face first in the sand. Jun gave a signal and his genin immediately started building a shelter against the storm.

The jonin took a closer look at the stranger. He was definitely male even though he had long dark hair and he was dressed in some kind of kimono. Jun turned him around and saw the signs of dehydration and terrible sunburns on his face, but he was still alive. Around his forehead was a Konoha headband. Jun wondered what had driven this shinobi to come to the desert so unprepared.

The Suna shinobi grabbed for his water bottle, uncorked it and poured the liquid into the stranger's mouth. The man slowly came to and coughed up sand and water. Jun waited till he was done and then gave him more to drink, which the stranger swallowed greedily. When the bottle was empty Jun put it away and tried to get some information. The man however was visibly close to lose in his efforts to stay awake, so Jun slapped his face a few times to keep him conscious.

"Who are you?"

"N-Neji H-Hyu."

"Hyuuga. I can see that thanks to your eyes. What is your business here in Suna, Hyuuga? Konoha shinobi aren't exactly welcome here anymore."

"N-need to sss-sss Hn-Hn-nata."

Neji groaned and lost consciousness. The experienced Jonin's face became thoughtful.

"Sensei do you know what he wants?"

"Of course. He wants to speak to someone specific. I know only one former Hyuuga that lives outside of Konoha and to our luck her first name is Hinata."

The eyes of two members of his genin squad went wide as they realized who their sensei was talking about. The third one had no clue.

"Who is she?"

Jun sighed because of the boy's lack in general knowledge.

"The Empress of the Western Empire."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Wow, I can be a mean bastard to beloved characters. And having chapter 13 be a complete catastrophe story wise is a fun little coincidence.**


End file.
